
I 





























- 

















































































M AC FAD DEN’S 
ENCYCLOPEDIA 

- OF - 

Physical Culture 


A WORK OF REFERENCE, PROVIDING COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS 
FOR THE CURE OF ALL DISEASES THROUGH PHYSCULTOPATHY, 
WITH GENERAL INFORMATION ON NATURAL METHODS OF 
HEALTH-BUILDING AND A DESCRIPTION OF THE ANATOMY 
AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HUMAN BODY 


By BERNARR MACFADDEN 

' 

ASSISTED BY 

Specialists in the Application of Natural Methods of Healing 


COMPLETELY REVISED—1920 EDITION 

FIFTH PRINTING 

Approximating Thirty Thousand Sets 
One Hundred Fifty Thousand Volumes 


VOLUME I 


PHYSICAL CULTURE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
113-119 EAST FORTIETH ST., NEW YORK CITY 

1920 





















&sV34-l 
•M l 8 

107.0 


Copyright, 1911, by Bernarr Macfadden. 
Copyright, 1912, by Bernarr Macfadden. 
Copyright, 1920, by Bernarr Macfadden. 


Fifth Edition. 

All Rights for All Editions Reserved. 

of ft from 
Robert L Owen 
Nov. 4, 1932 



« * 


HAMMOND PRESS 
W. B. CONKEY COMPANY 
CHICAQO 




MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 
OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


VOLUME I 


This Volume is devoted to the Anatomy and Physiology of 
the Human Body and to the Relation of Diet to Health 


.J tu - 

i -*• v 


Complete Index of Contents appears at close of Volume V 







GUIDE TO MANIKIN 

I. Outer Skin. 

I. Skeleton. 


1. Frojital Bone (Forehead). 

2. Parietal Bone (Side of Head). 

3. Zygomatic Process (Arch of 

Cheek Bone). 

4. Malar Bone (Cheek Bone). 

5. Orbital (Eye) Cavity. 

6. Superior Maxilla (Upper Jaw). 

7. Nasal Bone. 

8. Nasal Cavity. 

9. Teeth. 

10. Inferior Maxilla (Lower Jaw). 

11. Fifth Cervical Vertebra. 

12. Sixth Cervical Vertebra. 

13. Seventh Cervical Vertebra. 

14. First Thoracic Vertebra. 

15. Manubrium Sterni (Top of 

Breast Bone). 

16. Corpus Sterni (Body of Breast 

Bone). 

17. Ensiform Appendix (Lowest 

Point of Breast Bone). 

18. Clavicle (Collar Bone). 

19. Scapula (Shoulder Blade). 

20. Coracoid Process (Crow-bill 

Process of Shoulder Blade). 

21. Costa Verae (First True Rib). 

22. Costa Verae (Second True Rib). 

23. Costa Verae (Third True Rib). 

24. Costa Verae (Fourth True Rib). 

25. Costa Verae (Fifth True Rib). 

26. Costa Verae (Sixth True Rib). 

27. Costa Verae (Seventh True Rib). 

28. Costa Spuriae (Eighth False Rib). 

29. Costa Spuriae (Ninth False Rib). 
30 Costa Spuriae (Tenth False Rib). 
3». Costa Spuriae (Eleventh False 

Rib). 


32. Costa Spuriae (Twelfth False 

Rib). 

33. Cartilago Costalis (Costal Car¬ 

tilage). 

34. Twelfth Thoracic Vertebra. 

35. First Lumbar Vertebra. 

36. Second Lumbar Vertebra. 

37. Third Lumbar Vertebra. 

38. Fourth Lumbar Vertebra. 

39. Fifth Lumbar Vertebra. 

40. Os Sacrum (Cross Bone). 

41. Ilium (Hip Bone). 

42. Iliac Crest (Hip Bone Crest). 

43. Os Pubis (Pubic Bone). 

44. Ischium (Seat Bone). 

45. Foramen Ovule (Oval Opening 

of Pelvic Bones). 

46. Humerus (Upper Arm Bone). 

47. Condyle (Knuckle of Upper 

Arm Bone). 

48. Ulna (Inner Bone of Forearm). 

49. Radius (Long Prismatic Bone of 

Forearm). 

50. Carpal Bone (Wrist Bone). 

51. Metacarpal Bone (Bones be¬ 

tween Hand and Finger). 

52. Phalanges (Bones of the Fin¬ 

gers). 

53. Femur (Thigh). 

54. Caput Femoris (Head of Th?|h 

Bone). 

55. Collum Femoris (Neck of Thigh 

Bone). 

56. Great Trochanter (Large Rota¬ 

tor). 

57. Lesser Trochanter (Small Rota¬ 

tor). 































PRINTtO IN OAVARIA. 













































































PRINTED IN 3AVARIA. 





































VI 


GUIDE TO MANIKIN 


58. Outer Condyle (Thigh Protu¬ 

berance). 

59. Inner Condyle (Thigh Protu¬ 

berance). 

60. Patella (Kneecap). 

61. Tibia (Shin Bone). 

62. Fibula (Splint Bone). 


63. Inner Malleolus (Inner Foot 

Bone). 

64. External Malleolus (Outer Foot 

Bone). 

65. Tarsus (Ankle Bones). 

66. Metatarsus (Middle Bones of 

the Foot). 

67. Phalanges (Bones of the Toes). 


The Blood Vessels. 

(Including Some Nerves and Muscles.) 


1. Left Ventricle (Heart Cham¬ 

ber). 

2. Right Ventricle (Heart Cham¬ 

ber). 

3. Apex Cordis (Apex of the 

Heart). 

4. Coronary Vesssels of the Heart 

(Circumflex Arteries). 

5. Right Auricle (Ante-chamber). 

6. Left Auricle (Ante-chamber). 

7. Aorta (Ascending Section of the 

Trunk Artery). 

8. Aortic Arch (Arch of the Trunk 

Arteries). 

9. Pulmonary Arteries (Lung Ar¬ 

teries). 

10. Right Pulmonary Veins (Veins 

of the Lungs). 

11. Vena Cava Superior (Upper 

Great Vein). 

12. Right Innominate (Unnamed) 

Vein. 

13 Left Innominate (Unnamed) 
Vein. 

14. Right Subclavian Vein (Right 

Collar-bone Vein). 

15. Right Innominate (Unnamed) 

Artery. 


16. Left Common Carotid (Neck) 

Artery. 

17. Right Common Carotid (Neck) 

Artery. 

18. Left Inner Jugular Vein.' 

19. Right Inner Jugular Vein. 

20. Thyroid Gland (Shield-shaped 

Gland). 

21. External Maxillary Artery. 

22. Frontal Artery (Artery of the ' 

Forehead). 

23. Supra-orbital Nerve. 

24. Orbicularis palpebrarum (Com¬ 

pressor Muscle of the Eyes). 

25. Orbicularis Oris (Sphincter Mus¬ 

cle of the Mouth). 

26. Branches of Facial Nerve. 

27. Right Brachial Plexus (Right 

Nerve Plexus of the Arm). 

28. Trachea (Windpipe). 

29. Left Brachial Plexus (Left 

Nerve Plexus of the Arm). 

30. Intercostal Muscles. 

31. Vena Cava Inferior (Lower 

Great Vein). 

32. Diaphragm. 

33. Descending Aorta (Trunk Ar- 

tery). 




GUIDE TO MANIKIN 


vii 


34. Right Kidney. 

35. Left Kidney. 

36. Renal Vessels (Blood Vessels 

of Right Kidney). 

37. Renal Vessels (Blood Vessels 

of Left Kidney). 

38. Right Ureter (Tube Conducting 

Urine from Kidney to Blad¬ 
der). 

39 Left Ureter (Tube Conducting 
Urine from Kidney to Blad- 


der). 

40. Right Common 

Iliac 

(Hip) 

Artery. 

41. Left Common 

Iliac 

(Hip) 

Artery. 

42. Right External 

Iliac 

(Hip) 

Artery. 

43. Left External 

Iliac 

(Hip) 


Artery. 

44. Visica Urinaria (Urinary Blad¬ 

der). 

45. Iliacus (Right Hip-bone Mus¬ 

cle). 

46. Deltoid Muscle (Triangular 

Muscle of the Shoulder). 

47. Tendon of the Pectoralis Major 

(Breast Muscle). 

48. Biceps (Two-headed Arm Mus¬ 

cle). 

49. Axillary Artery. 

50. Arteries of the Arm. 

51. Veins of the Arm. 

52. Vena cephalica (Great Superfi¬ 

cial Vein at Outer Part of 
Arm). 

53. Median Nerve. 

54. Radial Arteries. 

55. Muscles of the Forearm. 

56. Superficial Arterial Arch of the 

Palm. 


57. Musculo-cutaneous Nerve of the 

Shoulder (Skin Nerves). 

58. Dorsal Cutaneous Nerves. 

59. Vena basilica (Royal Vein). 

60. Palmar Cutaneous Nerves (Skin 

Nerves). 

61. Great Saphena Vein (Cut off on 
the right, at the left complete): 

62. Femoral Vein (Vein of the Leg). 

63. Femoral Artery (Artery of the 

Leg). 

64. Poupart’s Ligament (Fallopian 

Ligament). 

65. Adductor longus (Long Adduc¬ 

tor Muscle of the Thigh). 

66. Sartorius (Taylor) Muscle. 

67. Rectus femoris (Longitudinal 

Muscle of the Thigh). 

68. Patella (Kneecap). 

69. Tibia (Shin Bone). 

70. Peroneus (Calf) Muscles. 

71. Anterior Tibial Artery (Front 

Shin Artery). 

72. Internal Popliteal Nerves (Deep 

Lying Nerves of the Calf). 

73. Tarsal Ligament (Ligament jf 

the Flat of the Foot). 

74. Flexor longus digitorum (Com¬ 

mon Extensors of the Toes). 

75. Flexor longus pollicis (Long 

Extensor of Large Toe). 

76. Internal Saphenous Vein (Vein 

in Front of Thigh). 

77. External Saphenous Vein (Vein 

of the Leg). 

78. Nerva saphena (Rose Nerve). 

79. Cutaneous Peroneal Nerve 
, (Nerve of Leg). 

80. Cutaneous Plantar Nerve (Cuta¬ 

neous (Skin) Nerve of the 

Leg). 




GUIDE TO MANIKIN 


viii 


IV. Muscles of the Back. 


1. Frontalis (Muscles of the Fore¬ 

head). 

2. Orbicularis palpebrarum (Com¬ 

pressor (Closing) Muscles of 
the Eyes). 

3. Auricularis superior (Muscles of 

the Temples). 

4. Occipitalis (Back Head) Mus¬ 

cles. 

5. Masseter (Masticating) Muscles. 

6. Sterno-cleido-mastoid (Nodding) 

Muscle. 

7. Splenius capitis (Muscles of the 

Head). 

8. Splenius colli (Muscles of the 

Neck). 

9. Levator scapulae (Levator Mus¬ 

cle of Angle of Shoulder 
Blade). 

10. Trapezius (Table-shaped Mus¬ 

cle). 

11. Supra-spinous (Upper Spinal) 

Muscles. 

12. Infra-spinous (Lower Spinal) 

Muscles. 

13. Deltoid (Triangular Muscle). 
14* Rhomboideus (Rib and Collar¬ 
bone) Muscle. 

15. Teres minor (Small Round Arm 

Muscle). 

16. Teres major (Large Round Mus¬ 

cle). 

17. Triceps (Three-headed Arm 

Muscle). 

18. Longis simus dorsi (Broad Back 

Muscle). 

19. Serratus (Jaw Muscle). 

20. Extensors on Back of Forearm, 

a. External Carpi Ulnaris (Ex¬ 
ternal Extensor of Forearm). 


b. External communis digitorum 
(Mutual Extensor of Fin¬ 
gers). 

c. External carpi radialis longus 

(Long External Radius). 

21. Iliac Crest (Crest of Hip). 

22. Gluteus medius (Middle Mus¬ 

cle of Buttocks). 

23. Gluteus magnus (Large Muscle 

of Buttocks). 

24. Pyriformic (Pear-formed) Mus¬ 

cles. 

25. Obturator internus (Inner Mus¬ 

cle of Hip Socket). 

26. Quadratus femoris (Four-cor¬ 

nered Thigh Muscle). 

27. Head of Extensor longus (Leg 

Extensor). 

28. Adductor magnus (Large Ad¬ 

ductor of the Leg). 

29. Gracchi (Twin Thigh Muscle). 

30. Biceps (Two-headed Leg Mus¬ 

cle). 

31. Semi-membranous Muscle. 

32. Semi-tendinous Muscle. 

33. Gastrocnemius (Two-headed 

Calf Muscle). 

34. Soleus (Muscles of the Sole of 

the Foot). 

35. Tendon of Achilles. 

36. Tibialis posticus (Back Shin 

Muscle). 

37. Peroneous (Calf) Muscle. 

38. Extensor longus digitorum 

(Long Extensor of the Toes). 

39. Extensor longus pollicis (Long 

Extensor of the Big Toe). 




GUIDE TO MANIKIN 


IX 


Muscles in Front and Intestines. 


1. Epicranial aponeurosis (Mem¬ 

brane of the Head). 

2. Frontalis (Forehead) Muscle. 

3. Temporal Muscles. 

4. Orbicularis palpebrarum (Com¬ 

pressor of the Eyes). 

5. Levator labii superioris alaeque 

nasi (Levator of the Nostrils 
and Upper Lip). 

6. Levator labii superioris proprius 

(Individual Levator of Upper 

Lip). 

7. Zygomaticus (Cheek) Muscle. 

8. Risorius (Laughing) Muscle. 

9. Depressor anguli ori (Triangular 

Muscle). 

10. Orbicularis oris (Sphincter of the 

Mouth). 

11. Depressor labii inferioris (Quad¬ 

rangular Muscle of the Under 

Lip). 

12. Masseter (Masticating) Muscle. 

13. Platysma (Large Cutaneous 

Muscle of the Neck). 

14. Levator of the Ribs (Cut Off). 

15. Trapezius (Table) Muscle. 

16. Internal Layer of Neck Muscles, 

17. Sterno-thyroid (Sternum) Mus¬ 

cle. 

18. Sterno-cleido-mastoid (Breast and 

Collar Bone Muscles). 

19. Clavicle (Collar Bone). 

20. Pectoralis major (Large Breast 

Muscle). 

21. Pectoralis minor (Small Breast 

Muscle). 

22. Subclavius (Muscle Under Col¬ 

lar Bone). 

23. Intercostal Muscles. 


24. Obliquus externus abdominis 

(Outer Oblique Abdominal 
Muscle, Cut off on the Left 
Side). 

25. Obliquus internus abdominis (In¬ 

ner Oblique Abdominal Mus¬ 
cle). 

26. Linea alba (White Line). 

27. Sheath of Rectus abdominis (Di¬ 

vision of the Longitudinal Ab¬ 
dominal Muscles). 

28. Umbilicus (Navel). 

29. Deltoideus (Deltoid Muscle). 

30. Biceps (Two-headed Arm Mus¬ 

cle). 

31. Brachialis (Tendon of the Two- 

headed Arm Muscle). 

32. Triceps (Three-headed Arm 

Muscle). 

33. Coracobrachiales. (Crow Beak 

Arm Muscle). 

34. Pectoralis major (Great Liga¬ 

ment of the Breast Muscle). 

35. Brachia radiales (Radial Arn 

Muscle). 

36. Flexor carpi radialis (Flexor of 

the Wrist). 

37. Flexor sublimis digitorum (Su¬ 

perficial Flexor of Finger). 

38. Flexor brevis pollicis (Flexor of 

the Thumb). 

39. Aponeurosis palmaris (Fan-like 

Spreading Ligament of the 
Palm). 

40. Abductor pollicis (Ligament of 

the Deep-lying Finger Flex¬ 
ors). 

41. Opponens pollicis (Muscles on 

the Eminence of Thumb). 




X 


GUIDE TO MANIKIN 


42. Abductor minimi digiti ( Muscles 

on the Eminence of the Little 
Finger). 

43. Subscapularis (Triangular Breast 

Muscle). 

44. Diaphragm. 

45. Transversalis abdominis (Diag¬ 

onal Abdominal Muscles). 

46. Psoas (Quadrangular Loin Mus¬ 

cles). 

47. Iliacus (Inner Hip-bone Mus¬ 

cle). 

48. Psoas magnus (Large Loin Mus¬ 

cle). 

49. Poupart’s Ligament (Fallopian 

Ligament). 

50. Pectineus Muscle of the Thigh. 

51. Adductor longus (Long Adduc¬ 

tor of Thigh). 

52. Gracius (Slim) Muscle. 

53. Sartorius (Tailor) Muscle. 

54. Head of Median quadriceps fe- 

moris (Leg Extensor). 

55. Inner Head of Median quadri¬ 

ceps femoris (Leg Extensor). 

56. Outer head of Median quadri¬ 

ceps femoris (Leg Extensor). 

57. Extensor longus digitorum 

(Tendon of Leg Extensor). 

58. Crural Ligament (Tensor of the 

Broad Leg Ligament). 

59. Patella (Kneecap). 

60. Ligament of Patella (Kneecap 

Ligament). 

61. Tibia (Shin). 

62. Gemelli (Twin Muscle of the 

Calf). 

63. Soleus (Push Muscle). 

64. Tibia anterior (Front Shin Mus¬ 

cle). 

65. Extensor proprius pollicis (Large 

Extensor of the Great Toe). 


66. Extensor longus digitorum (Long 

Mutual Extensor of the 
Toes). 

67. Crucial Ligament. 

68. Flexor assessorius (Tendon of 

Mutual Extensor of the 
Toes). 

69. Aorta (Trunk Artery). 

70. Sympathetic Nerve. 

71. Intercostal Nerve and Blood 

Vessels. 

72. Larynx. 

73. Thyroid Gland (Shield-shaped 

Gland). 

74. Trachea (Windpipe). 

75. Vena cava superior (Upper 

Great Vein). 

76. Right Lung. 

77. Left Lung. 

78. Pulmonary Arteries (Network 

of Blood Vessels in the Lung). 

79. Bronchial Arteries. 

80. Left Ventricle (Left Heart 

Chamber). 

81. Right Ventricle (Right Heart 

Chamber). 

82. Right Auricle (Right Ante- 

Chamber). 

83. Pulmonary Arteries. 

84. Vena Cava inferior (Lower 

Great Vein). 

85. Right Lobe of Liver. 

86. Left Lobe of Liver. 

87. Gall Bladder. 

88. Liver (cut in half). 

89. Esophagus (The Gullet). 

90. Stomach. 

91. Inside of Stomach. 

92. Spleen. 

93. Pancreas (Sweetbread). 

94. Duodenum (Intestinal Canal). 

95. Mesentery (Small Intestine). 




GUIDE TO MANIKIN 


xi 


96. Cecum (Blind Gut with Worm¬ 

like Appendix). 

97. Ascending Colon. 

98. Transverse Colon. 

99. Descending Colon. 

100. Sigmoid Plexus (S-like Bend). 

101. Rectum. 

102. Urinary Bladder. 


103. Inside of Bladder. 

104. Right Kidney. 

105. Right Renal Vessels (Blood 

Vessels of Kidney). 

106. Left Kidney. 

107. Kidney Pyramid. 

108. Plevis. x 

109. Left Ureter. 

110. Right Ureter. 






TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

A Good Position to Assume During Sleep. 41 

Apple, Diagram of Analysis. 460 

Appliance for Supplying Fresh Air. 15 

Asparagus, A Bunch of. 437 

Banana, Diagram of Analysis. 458 

Bananas and Cocoanuts. 403 

Bean, The Asparagus, and Vine. 432 

Beans, The “Cow-Pea”. 490 

Beans, Lima. 489 

Beans, Snap. 489 

Best Position for Sleeping, About the. 47 

Bone, Cross Section of. 149 

Bones, Ear . 308 

Bones of Arm. 158 

Bones of Right Foot, from Below. 161 

Bones of Left Leg. 158 

Bones of Back of Hand. 159' 

Brain from Above. 207 

Brain, Under Surface of.. ,.... . 210 

Bronchial Under Tubes, Final Branchings of, with Lobules. 284 

Bread, Black, Rye, “Pumpernickel”. 479 

Bread, Raw and Baked Whole-Wheat. 403 

Cabbage . 437 

Caecum Opened, Showing Junction of Small and Large Intestine. .. . 253 

Celery, Said to Promote Sleep. 442 

Cerebrum, Cross Section of. 206 

Cervical Nerves . 214 

Chestnut, Diagram of Constituents. 447 

Chicken, Edible Portions Remaining After Waste. 369 

Children Should Be Taught to Avoid Sleeping with Mouth Open.. 46 

Chinese Repast, Fruits and Vegetables. 452 

Cochlea, Section of Turn of. 309 

Cochlea, Section Through the. 309 

Complete Relaxation Essential for Restful Sleep. 40 

Cooking, Physical Culture Dishes (Illustrated).579-588 




































ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

Corn, Harvest of. 371 

Cow-Pea . 490 

Cranial Nerves . 218 

Cranial Nerve, Fifth, with Its Principal Branches. 216 

Cylindrical Envelope for Stove.. 17 

Diet, Robust Health and Moderation in. 330 

Ear Protectors . 22 

Ear, Separate Bones of... 308 

Ear: Tympanum, Ear Bones and Labyrinth. 308 

Ear: Section of One Turn of Cochlea, Showing Also Organ of Corti 309 

Effect of Badly Fitting Shoes. 21 

Eye, Horizontal Sectional View of. 302 

Eye: the Retina in Life When Viewed Through the Ophthalmoscope 304 

Eye: Section of Retina (very highly magnified).. 305 

Eyeballs from Above, Showing Muscles and Arteries. 300 

Eyelid, Cross Section Through Upper. 301 

Fairly Commendable Position for Sleeping, A. 47 

Fig, Diagram Showing Composition. 468 

Fingers, Ligaments and Joints of Fourth and Fifth. 160 

Foot, Bony Structure of Right. 161 

Foot, Ligaments and Joints of Fourth and Fifth Toes of Right.... 162 

Fresh Air, Suggestion for Obtaining. 10 

Good Position to Relieve Sleeplessness. 47 

Grains, Uncooked, Diagram Showing Digestibility....474-569 

Grape Vineyard .-. 613 

Gustatory Cells . 315 

Hand, Bony Structure of Back of. 159 

Hand, Ligaments and Joints of Fourth and Fifth Fingers of. 160 

Handy Type of Mitten, A. 21 

Head, Superficial Muscles of. 172 

Headgear Suitable for Outdoor Sports. 23 

Heart, Transection of the. 262 

Honeycomb, Natural State, with Bees. 518 

Human Body from Front, Muscles of. 178 

Hyoid Bones. 281 

Intestine, Cross Section of a Part of Small. '... . 252 

Jars for Canning Fruit, Glass. 608-609 

Jawbone, Section of a Molar Tooth and. 246 

Lamb Chops, Cost and Wastefulness. 367 

Larynx Viewed from the Front. 282 

Larynx from Behind, Showing Muscles. 282 

Larynx with Hyoid Bones and Trachea. 281 











































ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

Lentil and Vine.. 492 

Lettuce, a Blood Cleanser and Stomach Regulator. 442 

Lobules, Final Branching of the Bronchial Tubes with the. 284 

Lumbar Nerves .. 214 

Method of Preventing Mouth Breathing. 43 

Mice, on Cooked and Uncooked Food, Before and After Experiment 410 

Muscles of the Head, Superficial. 172 

Muscles of the Human Body from the Front. 178 

Muscle Fibrillae, Smooth. 169 

Muscle after Application of Acid, Striated. 167 

Muscle Showing Ending of a Nerve, Striated. 168 

Nasal Cavity, Cross Section Through. 247 

Nerve and Its Principal Branches, Fifth Cranial. 216 

Nervous System .218-221 

Nervous System, Articulated. 131 

Nervous System, the Spine and Important Branches of the. 214 

Onion . 437 

Organ of Corti. 309 

Outdoor Sleeping, Method of. 7 

Packing Plants, Chicago, Revolting Conditions in. 340 

Pancreas . 254 

Parotid Gland. 248 

Pea, Garden . 491 

Peanut, Vine and Roots. 455 

Pecan, Shell, Shelled and Cross Section. 450 

Poor Position for Sleeping, A. 47 

Position Frequently Assumed by Sleepers. 48 

Potato, Diagram of Nutritive Qualities. 433 

Proper Footgear. 24 

Pulse Warmer . 21 

Raised Knees, When Sleeping, Cause Heart Extra Work. 48 

Retina as in Life When Seen Through the Ophthalmoscope. 304 

Retina (Very Highly Magnified). 305 

Rice, Harvest of. 319 

Rice, Starch Granules. 389 

Sacral Nerves . 214 

Scapula, or Shoulder Blade. 156 

Shoe, Wrong and Right Form of. 20 

Simple Method of Ventilation, A. 8 

Skeleton, Front View of.:. 146 

Skeleton, Rear View of. 147 












































ILLUSTRATIONS 


page 

Skull, Base of. 153 

Skull, Front View of. 152 

Skull, Section Through the. 206 

Small Intestine, Cross Section of a Part of. 252 

Spinal Cord, at Different Portions. 213 

Spine . 154 

Steam-Cooker for Canning. 610 

Sterilizer for Canning Fruit. 611 

Sternum . 155 

Stomach, Outer Layers of. 250 

Stomach, Section of the Wall of the. 249 

Stomach and Duodenum, Section of the. 251 

Strawberries, a Luscious Fruit. 493 

Sympathetic Nerves . 218 

Taste Goblets and Gustatory Cells. 315 

Teeth of Adult. 246 

Thoracic Nerve. 214 

Toes, Ligaments and Joints of the Fourth and Fifth. 162 

Tomatoes . 442 

Tongue Viewed from Below. 314 

Tongue, Upper Surface of. 314 

Too Many Pillows Harmful. 46 

Tooth and Jawbone, Section of Molar. 246 

Trachea, the Larynx with the Hyoid Bones and Trachea. 281 

Tympanum, Ear Bones and Labyrinth. 308 

Type of Well-formed Neck. 19 

Vegetarian Repast, Fruit, Nuts, Etc. 444 

Vein Laid Open. 270 

Ventricle of Heart, Right and Left. 262 

Walnut, Diagram of Analysis. 447 

Water Bottle, with Wet Wrapping to Keep Cool. 49 

Wheat, Grain of, Cross Section. 405 

Wheat, Harvest of. 358 

Wheat, Section of Outer Covering. 386 

Wheat, Starch Granules. 389 

Wheat, Vertical Cross-Section, Germ and Parts Destroyed in Milling 472 
Window Tent, A. 16 








































PREFACE TO 1920 EDITION 


M ORE than eight years have elapsed since the preface 
to the first edition of this Encyclopedia was written. 
Its publication at that time was considered a bold 
venture. Nothing like it had ever been issued. Many of my 
associates strongly advised against the undertaking. 

I am glad to say that my judgment as to the value of the 
undertaking proved to be sound. There has been a wide de¬ 
mand for the information the work contains. More than 
thirteen thousand sets or sixty-five thousand volumes have 
been printed. 

The present edition contains numerous revisions. Time 
effects many changes. We have tried to bring up to date in 
every way the various subjects discussed. 

This series of volumes might appropriately be said to 
constitute an encyclopedia of personal efficiency. For from 
beginning to end we have endeavored to present such informa¬ 
tion as is essential to those who wish to maintain the body in 
a state of high physical excellence. And it has been our aim 
to so arrange the contents of several divisions that each in¬ 
dividual may be able to find, easily and quickly, the treatment 
best fitted for his or her particular needs. 

Aside from the attention given to the treatment of various 
ailments, the book is devoted to the object of interesting the 
reader in becoming vitally stronger, both physically and 
mentally. 

The absurd idea that the mind is a separate entity from 
the body is no longer tenable. Everywhere the mental worker 
now realizes the tremendous importance of nervous energy 
and vitality to the success of his endeavors. 

Since the first edition of the work was published, Physical 
Culture has come into its own. The world-wide war has made 
the public realize the importance of this momentous reform. 
There is an ever-increasing need for knowledge as to how to 
gain and how to keep health and fitness. 

Vol. 1—2 


PRE FACE 


Consequently, in presenting this new edition of the Ency¬ 
clopedia, we feel assured that the difficult task entailed by its 
very extensive revision will be well repaid. 

It would take up too much space to give special reference 
to the many changes which have been made in this series. I 
am certain, however, that the publication as it now stands 
will be keenly appreciated by every investigator in the held 
of health-building and allied subjects. 

The work is sent forth with this message: 

Pulsating health is your rightful heritage. 

Dominating efficiency can be developed if you are willing 
to make the necessary efforts. 

Ill health is inexcusable. It is due to ignorance, careless¬ 
ness, laziness. 

Make the best of yourself. 

Develop all attainable powers of mind, body and soul. 

It is only thus that you can become a super-man or super- 
woman. 

And herein you will find the information essential to the 
attainment of glorious rewards. 







CHAPTER I 


HEALTH AND EFFICIENCY. 

T HE superlative degree of human attainment comes only 
through efficiency. Efficiency brings success, wealth and 
happiness. And without superior health you cannot be 
efficient. Efficiency and health are boon companions. They 
are closely entwined. You cannot separate them. 

To be splendidly efficient is the one desire of every ambitious 
human being. 

Human tragedies are strewn all along the pathway of life; 
and the cause of these failures is usually ill health. If you 
desire to succeed, if your life is to be worth while, you must be 
vitally efficient. 

Hard work brings efficiency, but the ability to labor with 
such concentrated effort depends upon the possession of su¬ 
perior physical force. Your nerves must be in good working 
order, your stomach, heart, lungs and every part of your 
physical organism must be vibrating with the power of health. 

To live the life of achievement you must be exhilaratingly 
healthy. This characteristic, associated with ambition, en¬ 
thusiasm and persistence brings efficiency. 

If one were to build a house without a secure foundation, 
and then proceeded to decorate it in a very costly manner, his 
mentality would be considered defective. Some men try to 
build their human house without a foundation of vigorous 
health. They spend years of valuable time in improving their 
mentality. They “decorate” their human house by cultivating 
manners and habits that establish them in a superior class. Yet 
the necessity of developing superior health is rarely considered. 

It is no exaggeration to say that such men are mentally 
unbalanced. They fail to consider life in all its phases. They 
have not been able to separate the important from the unim¬ 
portant things of life. 

Men and women in perfect health will be strong, vigorous 
and splendid. Health is not a privilege granted to the few—• 


2 


MACFADDEN S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


it is every man’s inalienable right. It is riot only everyone’s 
right, but everyone’s duty. 

If you are a weakling, life will be meaningless to you, re¬ 
gardless of your mental achievements. Weaklings are cowards. 
But with strength a man acquires courage, persistence, ambi¬ 
tion and enthusiasm. He is able to dominate every difficulty. 
He is master of every emergency. 

If you have health life will be full and complete. The 
broad avenues of opportunity will open up before you and your 
experiences will become splendidly satisfying. Everyone who 
has lived the life of achievement can furnish proof as to the 
truth of these statements. Throughout history the value of 
strength has been proved. 

Our own ex-President Roosevelt was a weakling in youth. 
But he determined to become a strong man. And through his 
own untiring efforts he finally developed unusual physical 
hardihood. He became so splendidly vigorous that when he 
was at Harvard College he was the champion boxer of that in¬ 
stitution. Colonel Roosevelt’s whole life is a magnificent ex¬ 
ample of what can be accomplished through superior health. 
And everyone can acquire it. 

It is related that Woodrow Wilson took up the duties as, 
President of the United States while far from well, and yet 
developed energy and endurance to meet the tremendous prob¬ 
lems that confronted him by well-directed methods of health 
building. 

David Lloyd George, the statesman upon whom Great 
Britain has been forced to depend time and time again in 
crisis after crisis of its history, is notable for his unwavering 
adherence to the simple life. His capacity for work is in 
great measure the outcome of his replenishing of his energies 
by outdoor life and wholesome living. 

Georges Clemenceau, the Tiger Premier of France, spent 
many years of his life as a physician, practicing in America 
as well as in Europe. His experience taught him that effective 
human endeavor is largely dependent upon physical condition. 
The acute mind that earned for him lofty station in the 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


3 


seats of the mighty, the energy and endurance that enabled 
him to carry himself and his beloved France through terrific 
ordeals, were possible only to one having a superb physical 
equipment, the approach of his eightieth year proving no 
obstacle to his vigorous usage of his physique. The work per¬ 
formed by him in behalf of humanity stands as enduring evi¬ 
dence of the efficiency that attends the sane use of the sound 
mind in the sound body. 

Nowadays efficiency is recognized as a quality that can be 
developed to greater or less degree in all men and women. 
The first step forward is universally conceded to be the develop¬ 
ment of that physical energy upon which the accomplishments 
of the individual must be based, first, last and always. 

Confronted by the most gigantic task man has faced in 
all his history, the allied democratic nations of the world over¬ 
came their adversaries chiefly by superior, all-round efficiency, 
based on physical vigor. 

America, a land in which national efficiency had received 
scant attention, productive efficiency not a great degree more, 
and personal efficiency least of all, faced far-reaching changes 
in the performance of its share of the task to which its hand 
was set. Its initial task in the training of men to take up the 
tremendous exertions and extraordinary ordeals of modern 
warfare was to develop the health of these men to the highest 
degree practicable in every individual. 

A few brief months of intensive physical training effected 
a great transformation in hundreds of thousands of young men. 
The colorless, inert weakling became the alert and vigorous 
man, physically and otherwise fit for the performance of her¬ 
culean tasks. 

The most stirring chapter of all history tells the story of 
this demonstration of the relation of health and efficiency. 

To gain the master-key to good health it is imperative first 
of all to equip oneself with knowledge of the construction of 
the body, of the means by which life is sustained, and of the 
laws that govern physical well being. 

By far the greater percentage of diseases is preventable. 




4 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


The best equipped and most eminent authorities have demon¬ 
strated the truth of this statement—a statement that applies 
to those living even under favorable housing and hygienic 
conditions. Hundreds of thousands of men and women die 
before the body is actually worn out, and millions more are 
weak, suffering, unhappy and inefficient because of lack of 
knowledge of how to care for the body and how to conquer 
the forces of disease. 

To bring home this knowledge, lack of which is so costly 
to men and women, is the chief message of the pages before 
you. In plain, everyday language they convey to you facts 
on the construction and care of the physique that are of obvious 
importance, or that may seem at first glance trivial—for 
physical facts apparently trivial in theory often become matters 
of life and death in practice. 

The spirit of accomplishment, the power of persistence that 
mark the efficient man, are almost always the direct results of 
health. Those men who have initiated, persevered and achieved 
while lacking in physical strength have succeeded in spite of 
their ill health, not because of it. Had they been imbued with 
the same spirit of accomplishment no one can measure what 
they might have accomplished with robust health. 

Such health is not the right of a chosen few. It is not 
an exclusive privilege bestowed upon the favored. It is free 
to all—the birthright of all—within the reach of all. 




CHAPTER II. 


HOW TO KEEP HEALTHY. 

A PRACTICAL working knowledge of how to keep well 
is the best form of life insurance one can possess. It is 
more than that; it is the best form of health insurance 
that one can purchase. To understand the laws of health is 
to have taken a long step toward knowing how to keep healthy. 

Hygiene, that single word that covers a multitude of health 
laws, is a subject that will well repay the health seeker for 
the time he devotes to the study of it. Let us review some of 
the most important of those rules of hygiene upon which health 
in great measure depends. 

Air.— Few persons realize that pure air is a food just as 
much as bread, meat, fruit and vegetables, yet such is the fact. 
Indeed, as we shall show, it is the most essential and important 
of food elements, for, while the human body can healthily sub¬ 
sist for several weeks without food, it cannot live if deprived of 
air for even a few minutes. This fact should constantly be 
borne in mind that everything that enters into the compo¬ 
sition of a healthy body is a food, and as oxygen is the chief 
element in giving life and strength to the blood stream, its 
importance as a food cannot be over-estimated. Yet because 
air is free and does not appeal to a man’s appetite he does not, 
as a rule, appreciate it. If a man does not secure a satis¬ 
factory supply of good, pure, nourishing food, he becomes 
dissatisfied and is liable to get the impression that he is starv¬ 
ing himself to death, but the same individual will breathe en¬ 
closed air over and over again and imbibe the poisons that 
remain in such air in a wholesale way and yet make no com¬ 
plaint. 

There are those who claim that oxygen is more than a food. 
One writer affirms that the chemical action of the oxygen as it 
is absorbed by the blood furnishes the actual power that cir¬ 
culates the blood, and that the universally accepted theory to 
the effect that the heart furnishes the power to circulate the 


6 


MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


blood is erroneous. This theory may be correct, or it may 
not, but it shows the wonderful importance this author attaches 
to oxygen and its abundant presence in the blood. 

In spite of the fact that fresh air is one of the most valu¬ 
able privileges of humanity, there are hundreds of thousands 
of people who have no conception of its importance. Walk 
through the streets, both of residence and business, in any of 
our large cities, except during the summer months, and you 
will invariably find the larger part of the windows closed as if 
the inmates of the houses, stores, shops and offices regarded 
fresh air as an enemy to be avoided. When we consider that 
it is a part of the plan of Nature to compel the human body 
to breathe in and breathe out oxygen, without a single mo¬ 
ment’s cessation, from the time of birth until the time of 
death, that fact alone ought to stamp the act of breathing as 
one of tremendous significance and overwhelming importance. 
What makes us inhale and what exhale? While we have a 
large control over our breathing apparatus, the principal op¬ 
eration is absolutely beyond our control or volition and goes 
on day and night, asleep or awake, conscious or unconscious, in 
the new-born babe as well as in the healthy adult. 

The scientists tell us that the average adult inhales 480 
cubic inches of air per minute while at rest. If he walks four 
miles an hour, he draws in five times as much, or 2,400 cubic 
inches per minute; if he walks six miles an hour, he draws in 
seven times as much, or 3,360 cubic inches per minute. 

We have but to look at the functions of breathing to realize 
its supreme importance. There are three chief things that 
breathing accomplishes: 1. The elimination of impurities 
from the blood and at the same time its revivification. 2. The 
warming of the body. 3. It performs the last very needful 
act in the processes of converting the food that has been digested 
by the stomach into blood for use throughout the body. 

At no period of life does the human being so much re¬ 
quire fresh air as in the periods of babyhood, childhood and 
growing youth. During these epochs the processes of up¬ 
building the body are going on continuously. We all know 





Method of outdoor sleeping, possible where window opens on porch or other 
outdoor extension on level with floor of bedroom. 























8 


MACFAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


how babies and children grow. The most healthful of children 
are those who are taken out-of-doors and kept out-of-doors as 
much as possible, winter and summer, from the very hour of 
their birth. There is no danger whatever in this course of pro¬ 
cedure, even if the child is weakly, provided you make every 
provision for the warmth of its body. See that it breathes 
through its nostrils, wrap its body up well and leave Nature 
to do the rest. , 

It is equally important that the growing child and the adult 
have the same abundance of fresh, pure air day and night 
throughout the year. 

No sleeping room can be healthful that does not allow the 
fullest supply of fresh air to enter. One of the great obstacles 



A simple method of ventilation, particularly effective in inclement weather, 
is here illustrated. A box open at top and at one end, is made to fit window- 
frame. The closed end is placed outside of window open side downward (see first 
drawing) and with open end on inner side of window (see second drawing). This 
insures a supply of fresh air without permitting wind or snow or rain to cause damage 
within room. 


















































OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


9 


to this in America is that, as a people, we overheat our houses, 
and the difference between the temperature of our sitting- 
rooms and of the air from the outside, freely allowed to cir¬ 
culate in our sleeping rooms, is too great and consequently we 
do not open our windows as much as we should. The over¬ 
heating of our homes is a great mistake and physically the 
cause of much discomfort and disease. The temperature, in¬ 
stead of being from 70° to 80° Fahr., as it too often is, should 
be from 45° to 55° Fahr. The results of breathing air at this 
temperature would be to produce a great diminution of our 
catarrhal troubles, and also to render us more willing to allow 
the colder air of winter to enter our sleeping rooms. 

While upon this subject, however, I should like to add one 
word on the mental attitude. While I believe absolutely 
that pure air should be sought and demanded, I further be¬ 
lieve that it is in the power of rational man to say to himself 
at such a time: “As I cannot secure the fresh air I require 
I do not propose to lose my equanimity and peace of mind 
by worrying about it. I have done the best I could to secure 
fresh air and do not propose to make a bad matter worse 
by fretting and worrying.” In such a state of mind one 
will speedily find that he can rest and sleep with far less dis¬ 
comfort and injury than if he retires full of worry and 
fret. 

The writer would impress upon readers the important fact 
that the heating apparatus of the body is operated through 
the lungs and the stomach—mainly the former—and that the 
larger the amount of pure air we consume by proper breath¬ 
ing the more we are able to withstand cold. Every child should 
have this lesson thoroughly instilled into his mind. 

It is of the utmost importance that parents and others 
should see to it that the ventilation of every schoolhouse is 
as perfect as it can be. But it matters not how perfect the 
system installed, unless it is properly operated. Too often 
teachers are just as ignorant or as indifferent to the needs of 
pure air as are the children they are teaching. Especially in 
winter time is this caution imperatively necessary, for most 





Suggestions for manner of placing bed to obtain an ample supply 

of fresh air. 































































OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


11 


children suffer from colds, catarrh, and other distressing ail¬ 
ments at this time of the year, most of which might be avoided 
if a little common sense were exercised in providing fresh air 
for the children. 

Here is the plan that is in operation with many intelligent 
teachers, and always with the best of effects, both upon the 
studies and the health of the pupils. Two or three times dur¬ 
ing each session of school, morning and afternoon, every door 
and window of the building is opened, even in the coldest 
weather and though a storm may be blowing. The moment 
the doors and windows are opened, or perhaps even before, 
the students are called to their feet, lined up ready for a 
march, at the same time a song is started, to which certain 
simple exercises have been arranged. The march, the exercise, 
the song, even though they continue for but two or three 
minutes, clarify the brain of both teacher and pupils, reoxy¬ 
genate the blood, remove the heavy dull feeling, and at the 
same time the motion assists in removing the impure air and 
making place for the pure, fresh air from the outside. 

A few facts will at once show the absolute necessity for the 
most perfect ventilation in the schoolroom. Suppose fifty chil¬ 
dren are confined in a schoolroom, 20 by 30 ft., and 10 ft. high. 
That room holds 6,000 cubic feet of air. Fifty children will 
spoil about 150 ft. of air in one minute, or 9,000 ft. per hour. 
Now, suppose the session lasts three hours, with an intermis¬ 
sion of fifteen or twenty minutes playtime. If the teacher and 
some of the pupils remain, as they so often do, and all of the 
windows and doors are not opened wide during recess time, ex¬ 
cept for the pure air that, as it were, inadvertently gets into 
the room, those children would be breathing for two hours 
air which was absolutely poisoned by the exhaled impurities of 
their own bodies. 

Another thing that must not be forgotten is that wherever 
there is a light (otherwise than electricity) or a fire in a room 
the supply of oxygen in the air is constantly being diminished. 
A stove, an open gas fire, a Welsbach light, a coal oil lamp, 
all alike burn up the very qualities in the air that are needed for 




12 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


human beings, hence in providing for an abundant supply of 
fresh air, this must always be taken into consideration. 

One authority states that, “For every cubic foot of illumi¬ 
nating gas that an ordinary gas burner consumes in an hour 
we should provide at least 800 cubic feet of fresh air inflow. 
Hence every five-foot gas burner (as well as each lamp that 
gives nearly as much light) ought to have supplied for it while 
it is being used for lighting no less than 4,000 cubic feet of 
fresh air per hour. Some observers consider that this allow¬ 
ance is not large enough. The more fresh air a room receives 
and the more completely all contaminated air is drawn off by 
suitable means the more healthful the room is.” 

In the fighting of disease fresh, pure, vitalized, sunladen 
air is one of the greatest and most potent influences for good. 
There is no disease for which fresh air and sunlight are not 
the best kind of medicines. Nothing has delighted us more in 
recent years than the tremendous and growing interest mani¬ 
fested in the cure of consumption by open-air methods. A 
dozen years or so ago when Physical Culture Magazine was 
first issued, we were as emphatic then in our statements of 
the benefits to be derived from the open-air treatment as we 
are today, and we find considerable satisfaction in congratu¬ 
lating ourselves upon the great help that we have been in 
this laudable movement. The influence of what we have 
said on this subject during these years has been widespread 
and has undoubtedly influenced thousands of people—physi¬ 
cians, magazine and newspaper editors, and laymen generally 
—to look upon this movement with greater favor than they 
would otherwise have done. 

This open-air treatment of consumptives is largely fol¬ 
lowed in Switzerland. A lady visiting a fresh-air sanitarium 
in the Alps, feeling a draft on her, turned, as so many people 
instinctively do, to close the window, when, to her surprise, 
she found the windows were fastened so that they could never 
be completely closed, winter or summer. 

In this country great and influential medical associations 
have joined this movement, and a few years ago, even the 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


13 


New York Medical Society, one of the most conservative and 
reserved of bodies, came out with the most generous en¬ 
dorsement and advocac}^ of the open-air treatment in case of 
consumption, freely confessing that drugging methods were 
practically of no benefit. 

I can assure my readers and the medical profession that 
the assertions of this distinguished medical body apply not 
only to consumption, but practically to every disease known 
to man. 

The pure oxygen of the air is of even greater importance 
to all people who are sick than those who are well and strong. 
Not long ago we picked up a medical journal and read where 
a physician gave his experience in the treatment of whooping 
cough in compressed air. He had a cabinet into which the 
sufferer was placed and so arranged that the impure air was 
carried away to the outside, and the only air he was allowed to 
breathe was the compressed air forced into the cabinet. This 
compressed air contained a largely increased amount of oxy¬ 
gen, and as the patient remained in the cabinet from two to 
four hours each day, he found the disease quickly subjugated 
and the normal health recovered. While this was a far better 
treatment than the drugging method, we venture the asser¬ 
tion that if the patient had been treated by the out-of-door 
method, the recovery would have been just as rapid and far 
less expensive. 

I cannot too strongly emphasize my assurance that in 
every disease the more one gets into the open air, the better 
it will be. 

One may ask where all the fresh air comes from, and 
what becomes of the poison-laden air that is discharged from 
dwelling-houses and public buildings where large numbers of 
human beings congregate. This earth of ours, eight thousand 
miles in diameter, is completely surrounded by an envelope 
of fresh air to the depth of some forty-five miles. This we 
call the atmosphere. This is the ocean through which the 
ship, our earth, is constantly sailing, yet even this vast sea of 
fresh air would, in the course of the centuries, become vitiated, 




14 MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


impure and injurious to human life had no provision been 
made for removing the impurities and revivifying it. This is 
a somewhat complex subject, but briefly and simply the pro¬ 
cesses may be thus stated: The leaves of the trees and all ver¬ 
dure is fed by the carbonic acid gas which is the chief poison 
exhaled from the human lungs. By those wonderful chemi¬ 
cal processes designed by Nature, that which is poison to 
man and must be removed from the earth’s surface has been 
made the food of trees and all vegetable life. Furthermore, 
under the operation of this wonderful chemistry, vegetation 
so changes the poison that it again becomes fit for human food 
so that man eats it in this changed condition to the pleasure 
of his palate and an increase of his bodily strength. 

The vast oceans, inland seas, lakes, deserts and mountains 
of the earth also play an important part in this purification 
of the atmosphere. The winds scatter the poisonous gases, 
the dust, and other injurious substances held in suspension in 
the atmosphere, where population is congested, and carries it 
out to sea or into the vast spaces of the desert. There the 
dust settles and by the free and undisturbed action of the sun 
the poisons are eliminated. At the same time the chemical 
action of the sun, and the scrubbing of the winds one upon 
another combine to produce from the chemical elements of the 
ocean, the desert, the forest and the mountain, elements of 
strength, purity and life which again purify and vivify the air. 
Hence the winds that so often distress people are Nature’s 
scavengers helping to remove the impurities in the atmosphere, 
produced by man, and substituting in their stead the pure air, 
which is essential for his well being. 

There are five superstitions in relation to fresh air that 
have no excuse for existence. 

1. The first of these is that night air is injurious. While 
there is possibly not as much oxygen during the night time, 
owing to the absence of sunlight, there is still nothing harm¬ 
ful in night air, but it is full of life and health giving proper¬ 
ties. 

2. The second superstition is that damp air is injurious. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 15 


Many people have had it instilled into them that damp air is 
harmful. This is a serious and foolish mistake. Damp air is 
no different from any other air except that there is a certain 
amount of moisture held suspended in it. 

3. The third superstition is that drafts are injurious. 
Most people are afraid of drafts. The popular idea as to 
what is a draft is simply that it is a current of cold air com¬ 
ing into a warm room. There is no more need to be afraid of 
such a change than there is of going from a warm room into 
cold atmosphere. 

4. The fourth superstition is that cold air is more injurious 
than warm air. Instead of this being true, the reverse is the 
fact. Warm air does not have anything like the tonic effect of 
cold air. 

5. Again it is believed that it is injurious to sleep in a 
draft. The only way to sleep healthfully is to sleep in a draft. 
Instead of shunning a draft, the sensible, wise person, who 
wishes to be restored to health, or to maintain the health he 
has already secured, will so arrange his bed that the air, winter 



An appliance for supplying fresh air which may be purchased or easily manufactured. 

Vol. 1—3 










16 


MACFA DDEN J S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


and summer, will have the freest possible opportunity to blow 
directly over him. 

Ventilation .—No form of ventilation is worth while unless 
it accomplishes a continual and rapid change of the air in the 
room, in fact, sufficiently so that the atmosphere is nearly or 
practically as fresh and pure as that to be had outdoors. This 
means open windows. 

Man originally lived out-of-doors, and in a climate in 

which it was comfortable to 
be outdoors and unshel¬ 
tered. In more rigorous 
climates the necessity for 
shelter arose, and since caves 
were not always available 
houses or huts were invented 
and used. This provision 
for warmth occasioned the 
need of ventilation, a need 
which unfortunately always 
has been, and still is, much 
neglected. There is no diffi¬ 
culty to be found in the 
problem of ventilation in 
summer, but in winter it is 
inevitably involved in the 
problem of heating or, as we 
should rather say, warming 
the house. Economy in 
heat and fuel makes the ordinary housewife loath to open the 
windows wide when she has just succeeded in getting the con¬ 
fined air of the room warm enough to be comfortable. With the 
open windows her expensive warmth will largely be dissipated 
into the open air. And so most people live in rooms suffering 
so-called colds and other complaints, as well as a chronic lack 
of normal energy and do not realize that it is caused by the 
foul, vitiated air they breathe. 

The first thing to be said is, that most people heat their 








OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


17 


rooms too much, and seem to demand too much heat. In most 
cases they would be better off and far more vigorous if the 
temperature were reduced some ten to twenty degrees. But 
the real solution of the problem, in most cases, or at any rate 
the most perfect solution, is that of combining the methods of 
heating and ventilating. 

This is accomplished by some modern systems of furnace 
heat in which fresh cold air from out-of-doors is introduced 
through a very large pipe, exposed to the heating area of the 
furnace, and then distributed through other large pipes to the 
various rooms. This warm air is none the less pure or rich in 
oxygen because it is warm, and it keeps the atmosphere pure, the 
impure, dead air being allowed to 
escape through a so-called ventilator 
near the floor as fast as the fresh air 
pours in. The old-fashioned fireplace 
was a healthy proposition, though it 
was very wasteful, for most of the heat 
went up the chimney along with the 
smoke and bad air. The ordinary iron 
stove is fairly good because it creates a 
slight draft, but is nevertheless very 
faulty if the windows are kept closed. 

Steam heat and hot water pipes are the 
most unsatisfactory of all, for they 
simply warm the impure air of the room 
over and over again. 

On account of the expense, and 
sometimes because one only rents the 
rooms in which he lives, it is not always 
possible to devise an effective method 
of ventilation. Nor' does it always 
prove practicable or feasible to estab¬ 
lish an elaborate furnace system for 
combining the problem of ventilating 
and warming. But in many cases it is 
possible to devise a simple method of 



Cylindrical envelope for 
round, upright stove. Sheet 
of zinc or tin of required 
size is bent to surround 
stove. Flaps turned in front, 
to permit access to doors. 
Fresh air pipe at back, near 
floor. 


































18 


MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


accomplishing the same thing. I am offering some illustra¬ 
tions showing how a current of fresh air from outdoors may 
be introduced under a stove or steam radiator so that it will 
be warmed as it passes up into the room. There should be an 
envelope or box of sheet iron around the radiator or stove, from 
the floor up, and open at the top, so that only this fresh air 
will be warmed, instead of warming the* stagnant, vitiated afr. 
And as this fresh air pours up into the room, a moderate open¬ 
ing of a window at the bottom will allow the bad and colder 
air to escape. 

Bathing. —Of so much importance is the subject of exter¬ 
nal and internal cleanliness that a considerable portion of the 
third volume of this work has been devoted to the subj ect. The 
practical application of various forms of bathing is further 
detailed in the second as well as in the fourth and fifth 
volumes. 

Breathing. —In the discussion of pure air as an essential 
to health, the subject is touched upon in the present chapter. 

Carriage or the Body. —A vital matter in keeping health, 
this subject is touched upon at length in the subsequent volumes 
of this work, notably on page 789 and following pages of 
volume two as well as page 1003 of the same volume. 

Diet. —A large portion of this volume has been devoted to 
this all important topic, and the present brief mention has its 
place in this chapter chiefly through recognition of its essen¬ 
tial relation to hygienic living. 

Climate.— While this has doubtless some importance, it is 
far less important than the average medical man would have 
us believe. Cold, damp air is certainly not so healthful nor 
conducive to good spirits as a high, crisp, dry atmosphere. 
High altitudes are also to be preferred, as a rule, to low alti¬ 
tudes. Up to a certain point, the more stimulating the air the 
better. There are certain places, particularly along the south 
coast of England, noted for their enervating climate, and these 
should, of course, be avoided. Still, if the body be kept in 
proper physical condition, there need be nothing to fear from 
“the weather.” Climatic changes and conditions alter or in- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


19 


fluence us, but only to the extent that we are susceptible to 
such influence . 

Clothing and the Circulation. —Reference has been 
made in the chapter on Causes of Disease to the bad effect 
upon the circulation produced by wearing heavy clothing. The 
practice that was universal in former generations and is still 
continued by many people, the wearing of woolen underwear, 
is especially to be deplored. Wool is an animal product that 
tends to retard the elimination of the waste products of the 
body through the skin. It is much more cleanly, and hence 
also more healthful to wear linen or cotton fabrics near the 
skin—in winter as well as in summer. Besides, the warmth 
of body that is produced by weight and imperviousness of 
clothing is not beneficial. It is by the active circulation of 
the blood that the body should primarily be kept warm. 

Indeed, a degree of coldness is always desirable for physi¬ 
cal well-being. The air should always be permitted to get at 
the skin. Write this 
down as a golden 
rule of health: In 
winter wear no more 
than enough clothing 
to maintain the ordi¬ 
nary degree of ani¬ 
mal heat; in summer 
wear no more cloth¬ 
ing than convention 

Type of well-formed . Clothes should be worn 

neck. requires. loosely at the neck. 

See' that there is ventilation for the skin of every part of 
the body. Wear thin cotton or lisle foot-gear—never wool or 
silk. Your hat should have some provision for ventilation, 
for the air should reach your scalp freely if your hair is to be 
healthy. Go barefooted in summer when you can. When you 
must use foot covering in summer, acquire the sandal habit. 

Be cautious about the wearing of an overcoat. A top¬ 
coat is preferable to a heavy ulster. There are many bright 
and comparatively warm days in winter when neither top-coat 






20 


MACFAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


nor overcoat is needed. And when such a garment is not 
wanted, it is always better to do without it. 

Make sure that there is always plenty of looseness and 
freedom at the neck. Men who wear high, tight collars, and 
women who permit themselves to fasten stocks about the 
throat, are denying themselves a certain amount of health that 
might easily be theirs if they would permit more air to get in 
at the tops of their upper garments. And the habit of cover¬ 
ing the neck heavily and closely is the cause of most of the 
scrawny necks that are such frequent and uncomely spectacles. 
The well-rounded, graceful neck belongs to the man or woman 
who does not exclude the air from it. 

Clothing in Winter .—It is scarcely necessary to make 
any comment upon the subject of clothing for the summer 
except to say that one should as nearly approach a state of 
nature—or of nudity, in other words—as the conventions of 
human society will permit. Wear just as little clothing as 
possible, and preferably fabrics which are light in color as 
well as in texture. Reasons for this are given in the discussion 
on Sun Baths under Hydrotherapy , in Volume III. 

The rigors of winter, however, may require some modifi¬ 
cation of this advice, though I must emphasize that it is always 
best to wear no more clothing than is absolutely necessary 
for bodily warmth and comfort. Elsewhere the use of linen 
underwear, in preference to woolen, has been recommended, 
and even cotton rather than woolen, where it is essential to 



A Shoe with an upturned toe prevents the body from maintaining a correct posture. 
A healthful form of shoe is shown at right side of illustration. 













OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


21 



Avoid shoes which con¬ 
strict the toes. 



A brush of this sort Badly fitting shoes 
is useful for cleaning cause bunions and 
out shoes. corns. 



wear underwear at all. In many cases it is best to go with¬ 
out underwear, provided the external clothing, which then 
would come next the skin, can be washed and cleaned. The 
clothing usually worn in winter, however, makes it desirable 
to use some form of washable underwear for the sake of clean¬ 
liness, though this should be as light and porous as possible, 
in order that it may not exclude the air any more than can 
be helped. Furthermore, the absorbent qualities of both linen 
and cotton, the former especially, make them infinitely better 
for use next the skin than woolen weaves. 

In really cold weather a certain amount of clothing or 
covering is necessary for protection and warmth, but in that 
case it is better to put on warm garments over the light under¬ 
wear when going out, rather than to wear heavy woolen un¬ 
derwear. Wool may be recommended for external garments 
where real warmth is needed, for its heat-retaining qualities 
cannot be questioned. 

The amount of clothing needed will depend largely upon 



A handy type of mitten. Pulse warmer. 








































22 


MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the individual and his capacity of resistance to cold. This 
will also depend very largely upon the activity of the individual 
in the open air. While playing some athletic game one may 
need little or no clothing even in a freezing atmosphere, 
whereas the inaction of standing still as a spectator at the same 
game would require a certain amount of bundling up. One 
surely does not want an overcoat on when engaged in the 
vigorous and delightful activity of shoveling snow off the walk, 
but the man who is sitting still all day upon a snow plow, 
driving a team of horses, would suffer in zero weather if he 
were not protected. And so it goes. The amount of clothing 
one should use always will depend upon the demands of the 
occasion, though one should make it a strict rule not to have 
any more clothing on than one needs. Just because one needs 
to be bundled up when driving a motor car against a North 
Pole breeze, one should not go about in street cars and on 
active walks with the same heavy apparel. 

Perhaps the most important suggestions that I have to 
make here is that in protecting oneself against the bitter cold 
of the open air, it is always best to use warm external wraps 
rather than heavy clothes which are worn both indoors and 
out. While sitting in the house or the office one is really in 
a summer temperature, and it is only folly to have heavy 



Ear*laps are sometimes useful 
in winter weather. 


A cap of this sort may be used 
when the temperature is 
extreme. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


23 


woolen underwear and other 
excessive clothing on just 
because it is cold outside. 

You should really be 
dressed as you would be in 
the summer for this warm 
indoor temperature, and 
then, when you go out, you 
can put on a sweater or 
overcoat or whatever you 
may need on the occasion. 

Remember always that cold 
air is good for the body and 
for the nerves, so long as 
you can be comfortable in it. 

One thing to be kept in 
mind is the necessity for a 
good circulation in the ex¬ 
tremities, for if the hands 
and feet are warm you are 
all right everywhere else. A 
chilling of the hands and feet sometimes means congestion else¬ 
where, and a chronic condition of cold extremities means a 
certain loss of vitality. When the feet are warm the blood is 
circulating satisfactorily, and you can observe the tempera¬ 
ture of the entire body by merely watching the feet. On this 
account I would suggest that in many cases it is better to 
protect the extremities well instead of resorting to an excess 
of heavy covering for the entire body. The arteries which 
supply the feet and hands are not very far from the surface, 
particularly so in the case of the wrist, at which point we 
usually test the pulse, and by covering these well we will go 
far toward solving the problem of warmth and comfort out- 
of-doors. A form of knittted woolen cuff which fits close to 
the wrist, and which is much used in some foreign countries 
for keeping the wrists and hands warm, is illustrated on page 
-. These will sometimes really do more for the warmth of 







Pro per footgear is essential to secure pleasure and benefit through walking. 11 lus¬ 
trations Nos. I, 2 and 3 show how feet are distorted by high heels and improperly 
shaped shoes. Illustrations 4, 5 and 6 show types of sandals which may be 
recommended for comfort and ventilation. The sandal shown in illustration 6 
is particularly adapted to walking on sandy or stony roads. 



24 















OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


25 


the hands than the covering of the hands themselves. On 
some of the rivers and lakes of the West a favorite winter sport 
is horse-racing on the ice, for there is no better racecourse to 
be found than a stretch of smooth, elastic ice, for sharp-shod 
horses. Driving these horses, with arms stretched forward 
and the icy wind blowing up the sleeves, is a severe hardship 
if one is not prepared for it. The drivers in these races have 
found through experience that it is better to cover their wrists 
and arms, even when driving with bare hands, than to rely 
only upon heavy gloves. 

The fashionable fingered gloves are most unsatisfactory 
for real protection or warmth. The proper covering for the 
hands, when they are cold enough to require any such protec¬ 
tion, is the old-fashioned mitten. This keeps the fingers to¬ 
gether and they keep each other warm. In the fingered glove 
the fingers are separated so that they may be chilled or frozen 
that much more easily. It is usually better and warmer to 
keep the hand bare and closed in a fist, than to put on a glove. 
In very severe climates it is necessary to protect the ears. The 
hair would do so if allowed to have its own way, but the modern 
hair cut has robbed us of this natural protection. For this 
purpose a hat is an absurdity. A cap, with a covering for 
the ears, is the only feasible headgear. 

Do not be too much afraid of the cold air. It is bracing, 
invigorating, energizing. Sometimes you may find yourself 
shaking with a chill in a superheated room, but if you will go 
out-of-doors and walk around the block in the frosty, biting 
wind, you will find yourself warm and comfortable. It will 
wake you up and warm you, so that when you return you 
will open up the windows to stay warm. 

Cold, Constant Feeling of. —This condition is largely 
due to anaemia of the skin, and it should be toughened by means 
of hot and cold baths, air baths, salt-rubs, plenty of exercise, 
etc. Be sure not to overeat, and masticate thoroughly every 
morsel of food you eat. Drink plenty of water, and breathe 
only pure air. Vigorous exercise is needed more than all else. 
Do not wear too many clothes—just as few as you possibly 




26 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


can, and as your skin becomes more active, it will become 
warmer, and will soon glow with exhilarating health. Stimu¬ 
late and accelerate a flow of blood as has been suggested and 
you will be far more comfortable. 

Cold Drinks. —Americans are very apt to indulge in 
too many cold drinks, and doubtless too much ice water is 
extremely harmful in its action upon the coating of the stomach. 
At the same time, cool water probably never harmed anybody, 
no matter how hot they were. It would be advisable, however, 
to rinse out the mouth and bathe the face and hands in cool 
water before drinking when one is overheated. If you do this 
first there need never be any danger in drinking a supply of 
cool water. See also Water, page 40. 

Digestion is fully described in Chapter VIII of this 
volume. Further information on digestive disorders will be 
found in Volume V. 

Dissipation. —Vitality may be dissipated in a number of 
different ways—by overeating, alcohol drinking, too little 
sleep, excessive venery, late hours, exciting pleasures, strenuous 
emotions, etc. In fine, “the game is not worth the candle,” 
and many years of a “life abounding” with love and health is 
certainly worth more than a few hours of riotous, sensual en¬ 
joyment, every now and then—followed by depressing and 
debasing after-effects. 

Any discussion of the requirements of health would be 
incomplete without some reference to various forms of dissipa¬ 
tion which are not commonly regarded as such. The term 
has come to have a rather narrow meaning, for at its mention 
one is most likely to think of drunkenness and all-night orgies 
in public places. Literally, however, the word has reference 
to all means of dissipating or wasting human energy, and in 
this sense it should be considered here. For instance, a man 
who thinks himself a model of righteousness arid good conduct 
because he frowns upon alcoholic indulgence and the use of 
tobacco, may yet be guilty of even greater dissipation through 
the abuse of his stomach, in persistent over-eating and in the 
use of unwholesome foods which consume or waste vitality. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


27 


The force of this has been made more clear in the discussion 
of diet in a previous volume. 

Late Hours . Probably one of the most disastrous and at 
the same time one of the most common forms of dissipation 
is the American habit of late hours. In the cities there are 
only a few of the old-fashioned kind of people who get to bed 
before ten o’clock in the evening, whereas the more usual hour 
for retiring is somewhere between eleven and twelve. Indeed, 
there are probably more people who go to bed after midnight 
in the cities than who go to bed before ten. And in recent 
years the same tendencies are to be noted in the villages and 
small towns. 

Vitality is impossible without sleep. Without this nightly 
opportunity of rebuilding the broken down cells, charging 
them with oxygen and storing up energy for the following 
day, one must inevitably deteriorate in vigor and strength. 
It seems hardly necessary to say that all else that one may 
attempt in the way of health culture and body-building will be 
of no avail whatever if day after day one sits up late in the 
evening, not only depriving one’s body of the opportunity for 
recuperation, but still further wasting and destroying its tis¬ 
sues and powers. Truly, it is a policy of slow suicide, and one 
could scarcely conceive of a more certain method of bringing 
on complete physical and nervous collapse. This habit alone 
would be quite sufficient to explain the large preponderance 
of nervous disorders among city dwellers, including large num¬ 
bers of those who are as yet scarcely more than children. 

Further on in this chapter I have discussed the necessity for 
sleep and have offered some suggestions that will be of value 
in many cases, but the question of the time for going to sleep, 
and the length of time for sleeping, are so important that they 
need special emphasis. For reasons which no one really un¬ 
derstands, the body is able to recuperate much more perfectly 
before midnight, the sleep is more profound, the Respiration 
deeper, the oxygenation of the blood more perfect. It has 
been said that burglars prefer to do their work early in the 
night for the reason that the occupants of the house are less 




28 


MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


likely to awake at that time than in the hours of approaching 
dawn. At any rate, the vast experience of the whole human 
race has so thoroughly demonstrated the greater value of early 
evening slumber that it has become proverbial to say that two 
hours of sleep before midnight are worth four hours after. 

A man may sleep the same number of hours, be it eight or 
nine, but if he goes to bed at twelve or one o’clock and gets up 
at eight or nine, then he does not feel rested or refreshed as he 
would if he went to bed at nine and arose at five or six in the 
morning. That tired, languid feeling, that weakening sense 
of lassitude, should show only too clearly that his body has 
not properly recuperated from the drains made upon it the 
day and the night before. 

And besides, it is just as easy to shift the waking and sleep¬ 
ing hours ahead two or three hours, to go to bed somewhere 
near the end of the day and to get up at the real beginning of 
the day. 

Overwork is another fairly common form of dissipation, 
innocent though it may seem to devote oneself faithfully to 
“good, honest work.” Overwork, however, much as those who 
are guilty of it may endeavor to excuse it, is as futile as it is 
disastrous in its consequences. One may plead the pressure 
of necessity, but at the same time he fails to see that in ex¬ 
ceeding the normal limitations of his expenditure of physical 
energy he is only defeating his own purpose. Instead of recog¬ 
nizing that he cannot do good work if he labors in a condition 
of fag, instead of realizing that it is best to accomplish just so 
much effective work each day and keeping it up day after day 
without any failing of his strength, he consumes himself in a 
short time trying to double his productive power and then finds 
himself in such a condition of collapse that he cannot do half 
of a normal day’s work, perhaps cannot even accomplish any¬ 
thing. 

Drainage and Sanitation. —Special attention should be 
paid to the question of drainage and sanitation —too often neg¬ 
lected by hygienists, who should know better. The newest 
and best styles of plumbing are the cheapest in the long run, 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


29 


and insure good health. If there is the slightest trace of odor 
anywhere around the toilet-room, have it examined at once. 
Keep a bottle of suitable preparation on hand for purposes of 
disinfection. One great advantage of living in a house upon 
the top of a hill is that the drainage is always safer there than 
at a low level. The water supply, especially if you live in the 
country, is also less likely to become contaminated. 

Choose, as the site for your house, the top of a hill, if 
possible, with a dry, somewhat rarefied atmosphere. This is 
not only more healthful in itself, but the air would be freer from 
dust —a great saving to the lungs, and especially beneficial to 
one having weak lungs. By all means avoid dust—either in 
the house or out of it. You should never brush carpets or rugs 
without first sprinkling them with wet tea leaves or sawdust. 
(See also Sanitation.) 

Elimination is discussed in detail in Volume III, page 
798 and elsewhere. 

The Ear and its functions is completely described in 
Chapter X of the present volume. 

The Eye^ its construction and its work, are treated in the 
present volume, Chapter X. 

Fasting as a curative measure and otherwise is treated in 
Volume III, pages 1203 to 1296. 

Food and its uses are treated at length in the present 
volume, beginning page 316. 

Household Hygiene is discussed in the fifth volume of this 
work, page 2601, and elsewhere. Household Remedies are 
treated in the third and fourth volumes of this work in detail. 

Mind and Body.— No one can afford to overlook the in¬ 
fluence of mental conditions upon the state of the bod}^. (See 
Chapter XII.) One aspect of the subject is commonly 
ignored or unnoticed by most of those who appreciate the effect 
of the mind over the body, and that is the influence of the body 
over mental conditions. This is a matter that is of paramount 
importance to thousands whose lives are made miserable by 
“the blues” and tendencies to worry. These tendencies may be 
corrected within certain limits by the attitude of the mind itself, 




30 


MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


but in a vast number of cases they can be overcome by purely 
physical means. 

In the writer’s experience he has known of innumerable 
cases of pessimistic and misanthropic individuals who have 
become happy and congenial through the simple improvement 
of their physical health. While it is true that an emotion of 
grief will interfere with the functions of the body, it is also 
true on the other hand that in many, many cases a condition 
of mental depression is caused entirely by physical depression. 

Briefly, the value of any form of recreation, mental or 
physical, may be judged by its after-effects. If the ultimate 
effect is to refresh, and one is able to look back at it only 
with sensations of pleasure, then he may be sure that it has 
been beneficial. If, on the other hand, it is followed by a 
sense of lassitude or a period of nervousness; if the excite¬ 
ment interferes with the usual appetite or the capacity for 
perfect relaxation in sleep; if, in short, one does not feel more 
ready and eager to take up his daily work, and able to ac¬ 
complish it with greater dispatch and energy, then the sup¬ 
posed recreation has been a mistake. Many so-called pleasures 
may seem to afford diversion at the time, but if one can look 
back at them in the clear light of the morning following with 
disapprobation for the money spent, disapproval for the time 
wasted, and a generally disgusted feeling of “Oh, what’s the 
use?” then they are not pleasures at all. At least they do not 
mean happiness. It is not the false joy of the moment that 
counts, but the sum total of contentment and happiness day 
after day and week after week that counts, and that helps to 
maintain normal health and the vigor of the body. If in doubt 
about any form of recreation always apply this test of the 
aftermath, for any pleasure that is good for you will not leave 
a bad taste in the mouth, either literally or figuratively. 

In these remarks upon the subject of dissipation it may be 
well to merely mention another thoughtless form of dissipa¬ 
tion which is commonly overlooked, probably because it is so 
nearly universal and more or less taken for granted. Impure 
sex association in bawdy houses are commonly recognized as 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


31 


dissipation of the worst kind, but excesses within the bonds of 
matrimony are disregarded because of their presumed pro¬ 
priety and the general approval of marriage. Marriage in 
many cases serves only as a cloak with which to cover dissipa¬ 
tion of the most habitual and exhaustive kind, or as Bernard 
Shaw once expressed it, “a hot-bed of unbridled license.” 
However, this is a matter that is taken up thoroughly in a 
later part of this work. No man can hope to make much im¬ 
provement even with the most effective physical culture 
methods, if he continually exhausts his vitality in this way. 
Indeed, temperance and cleanliness in every form are among 
the absolute essentials of physical culture, in the true sense. 

The mind has a powerful effect upon the whole body, and 
upon its functions. Depressing emotions will rapidly enervate 
the whole organic framework, and we know that worry and 
sorrow have caused the flesh to drop off men’s bones at a 
rate which a continued Turkish bath could hardly equal! On 
the other hand, the man who “laughs and grows fat” also 
demonstrates the beneficial effects of a hearty, cheery mind. 
The emotions and the thoughts certainly play a most impor¬ 
tant part in the health of the body—as everyone who has had 
much practical experience with sick people knows. 

Worry never helped anyone. On the contrary, it in¬ 
jures everyone who indulges in it, and prevents the return of 
normal, natural health. It has been proved that worry re¬ 
tards digestion, lowers respiration and circulation, and in fact 
all the functions of the body. On account of -this, poisons 
begin to accumulate; these mix with the blood and are carried 
to the brain, where they poison the cells, and cause irritation, 
depression, and a host of kindred mental afflictions. Thus the 
circle is completed, and one’s health and spirits are lowered 
more and more as time passes. In one who determined to 
assume the optimistic attitude from the start, all this would 
have been avoided. The symptoms would readily have yielded 
to a few simple measures; and all the rest would have been 
spared the patient. 

Heredity is a great “bugaboo” to many minds. Such per- 

Vol. 1—4 




32 


MACF ADDENDS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


sons are afraid that they have inherited some disease, from 
which they must necessarily die. If their parents died from 
tuberculosis, and they develop a cough, they are naturally 
fearful that they have consumption likewise, and give them¬ 
selves up for lost. But this is a great mistake. With the 
exception of syphilis and of one or two blood diseases of the 
same character, practically no diseases are hereditary. The 
tendency to disease may be inherited, not the disease itself. 
But even if it were inherited, what then? Most diseases may 
be cured quickly and rationally by the simple methods of cure 
outlined in these volumes. If an original infection can be 
cured, simply and effectually, why not a hereditary disease? 
As a matter of fact, it can be more easily cured. For it has 
been proved beyond all question that every disease tends to 
become less virulent with every generation removed from the 
original infection. Remembering this, why worry? 

The safest rule to follow is to forget the body as much as 
possible, when you are not actually exercising or improving it. 
It can take care of itself well enough. If anything goes radi¬ 
cally wrong, you may depend upon it that the body will let you 
know forcibly enough. Until this is the case, assume that 
your body is in good health; and you will be all the better for 
that belief. 

All cramping, depressing mental and emotional states tend 
to cramp and contract the muscles of the body, while exalted 
and altruistic ones tend to give it a feeling of expansion; this 
may readily be felt by anyone who experiences the two sets 
of emotions one after the other in himself. With the one his 
whole being expands, with the other it contracts. The latter 
condition wastes precious nervous energy, exhausts and ener¬ 
vates; the former conserves and preserves it. 

Mental and emotional states often cause actual chemical 
changes. Dr. Hack Tuke, for instance, quotes the famous 
case of the mother’s milk which became poisoned as the result 
of a fit of anger. The spittle (teste) of mad dogs is poisonous 
for the same reason. All the symptoms of hydrophobia have 
frequently been known to occur when the patient has not been 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


33 


bitten at all; and the same thing is true of lockjaw as well. 
There is a species of epilepsy, known as psychic epilepsy, which 
so closely resembles the original that only the expert diagnos¬ 
tician can tell them apart. Yet it submits readily to 'purely 
mental treatment. 

Professor Pavlow some years ago performed a number of 
very interesting experiments upon dogs. He proved that when 
hungry dogs were allowed to smell food, the glands in the 
stomach began to secrete gastric juice with great activity. 
On the other hand, if the dogs were not hungry, the smell of the 
food did not cause any flow of gastric juice, and even the in¬ 
troduction of food into the stomach itself failed to induce 
the flow to any extent. Here, then, we see the importance of 
the mental factor in digestion; and further the importance of 
waiting for hungei before food is ever eaten. 

If mind has this great influence over the body, and can 
cause disease or the symptoms of diseases, it can assuredly 
cure them also. A right mental attitude can affect the func¬ 
tions and organs of the body throughout, and cause them 
to assume a very different condition. 

Occupation. —There can be no doubt that most outdoor 
occupations are by far more healthful than indoor work, since 
it provides opportunity for an abundance of exercise and fresh 
air. 

Farm life would be better than it is were it not for the fact 
that various drawbacks are nearly always associated with it— 
fatigue, bad air at nights, lack of hygiene and sanitation, un¬ 
wholesome food, etc. There is, as a matter of fact, no reason 
for this, and farm life could be made an ideal life if it were 
properly managed. Indoor occupations are not so bad if the 
windows are left wide open and a certain amount of exercise 
is taken every day; in fact, statistics prove that the average life 
of the city man is longer than the man who lives in the country. 
There is no just reason for this, and it must be due to the causes 
mentioned—overeating, lack of sanitation, lack of fresh air at 
night, etc. Drainage is often a serious problem in the country. 

Various occupations are notoriously injurious—mining, 




34 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


stone-cutting, deep-sea diving, work in a steel mill, a paint fac¬ 
tory, a feather bed factory, etc. Small particles of some of 
these materials fill the air, and are inhaled into the lungs, 
where they set up serious inflammation, and often cause death. 
Men who work in paint shops often suffer from lead poison¬ 
ing. Men who work under great air pressure are liable to 
suffer from “caisson disease,” ending in a frightfully painful 
death. On the other hand, aviators may die from lack of air. 
But they are usually able to get back to air levels, and deaths, 
therefore, do not occur very often in this way. 

On the whole, it may be said that any occupation may be 
made more or less healthful by the manner of life which is 
lived after working hours, and the condition in which the blood 
and general health is maintained, during the period of labor. 

Occupation and Health. —There can be no doubt of the 
influence of occupation on health, and unquestionably many 
who are trying to improve their physical condition are labor¬ 
ing under a great handicap because of the confinement of their 
work, the ill-ventilation of their working quarters, and perhaps 
compulsory overwork. Despondent and discouraged, they 
may ask what is the use of striving for health so long as they 
are thus held back in their endeavors? To all such I would 
say that the physical culture life offers the only hope, that if 
they had always lived right and had been strong enough in the 
beginning, they would have been able to endure the hardships 
of their work without breaking down under them. If your 
occupation seems against you, then it is all the more important 
that you should strive through every means.in your power to 
counteract its evil influence, and to build up the health that will 
help you to overcome your situation. Do the best you can, 
for that is all that is expected of you, and the chances are that 
you will rise above the difficulties that surround you. The 
history of the world is full of instances of strong-willed men 
and women who have achieved the greatest successes only be¬ 
cause of the strength which they have gathered in overcoming 
handicaps and difficulties. It may be so with you; it should be. 
Do not recognize your handicaps, or, if you do, regard them 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


35 


merely as incentives to greater effort. You can do what others 
have done, but even if you fail in accomplishing all that you 
desire, at least you will gain much by striving. You will gain 
infinitely more than if you did not try. 

Wherever possible, one should select some occupation in 
the open air, or one which will permit him to be in the open 
air as much as possible. In these days many young men chose 
to do clerical work which compels them to spend their entire 
time indoors, perhaps they do this elect because of shirking any 
real physical exertion. Perhaps they ultimately earn ten 
dollars a week where some skilled mechanic, working with his 
hands, gets over thirty. But most of all, young men seem 
to be afraid of the farm. Here, it seems to me, is the occupa¬ 
tion ideal. It combines utility and health, while there is no 
line of work which offers a better opportunity for the use of 
genuine brains. Intensive agriculture is the thing of the future, 
and instead of the past migration of the young brains of the 
country to the city, we may some day see the best brains of 
the city turning to the country. Surely the wisdom of such 
a movement is unquestionable. 

Posture of the Body is discussed in subsequent volumes, 
notably in Volume II, pages 789 and 1003. 

Parenthood is discussed in Volume V. 

Recreation. —It is naturally understood that recreation in 
most cases will include a very large proportion of active, physi¬ 
cal recreations chiefly in the open air, and the reader is referred 
to the chapters dealing with exercise and open-air sports. But 
other forms of recreation of a purely mental character must 
also be considered, inasmuch as they have a great influence 
upon the condition of the body. In this connection I would 
refer to the paragraphs on recreation in my discussion of the 
subject of Dissipation in this chapter. Many so-called recrea¬ 
tions are not recreations at all. 

Whatever brings happiness and wholesome mental activity 
of a diverting kind may be generally recommended. Music 
probably offers the most satisfying and helpful recreation, and 
there are few who will not be better off for a certain amount of 





36 MACF AD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


music in their lives. Its effect is exalting, refreshing. Accord¬ 
ing to the character of the music and the tempo, it may be 
either soothing and resting or stimulating and energizing. It 
must be said that ragtime and the more trashy forms of music 
are of little influence one way or another, but the better kinds 
of music, well rendered, have a tendency to restore or maintain 
the functional harmony of the body in the same way that other 
forms of happiness accomplish this result. Those who are spe¬ 
cially inclined towards nervousness and excitability would prob¬ 
ably do well to select music not too rapid in tempo; something 
soft and sweet, or some rather majestic movement, would be 
better suited to their needs, tending to rest and quiet the nerves. 

Singing is particularly to be recommended, and I would 
suggest that every one try to do a little singing on his own 
account, unless the results are disagreeable to oneself. 
Even if you are not able to entertain others in this way, it will 
be physically and mentally beneficial to yourself to do some 
singing either by yourself or in a chorus. If you are sensitive 
about your artistic failings as a vocalist, you may feel that they 
will never be noticed in a chorus. Singing is the most refresh¬ 
ing form of music, and entails no expense. Besides, it is really 
a physical exercise in itself, and is superb as an exercise for the 
lungs, and as a means of gaining control of the respiratory 
muscles. 

Good reading is a most excellent form of recreation, pro¬ 
vided the type is large enough to avoid eye strain and that one 
does not stay up late nights to accomplish it. To read too late 
in the evening is only another form of dissipation. Good 
wholesome literature, whether in the form of history, essays or 
high-class novels, is to be recommended, though the cheaper 
class of sensational novels, which aim not to educate or in¬ 
spire, but merely to stir one up and set his nerves on edge, 
are to be condemned. The pleasure in them is ephemeral, at 
the best, whereas the reading of philosophy or of practical, 
helpful matter that will be of aid in one’s daily life will often 
be equally fascinating and the pleasure more lasting. Good 
reading helps to make life worth while and contributes greatly 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


37 


to the sum of happiness enjoyed by the individual, in this way 
being favorable to health and the welfare of the body. 

I would advise every one to cultivate some wholesome 
hobby or fad in which he can take a keen interest. It nearly 
always makes a man take a greater interest in his business or 
profession if he has something outside to which he can turn for 
relief and which makes him thoroughly happy. It is all the 
better if one can take up physical culture as his special fad, 
and this is the case with the great majority of those who have 
given any thought or attention to the care of their bodies, but 
in addition to this one or two other hobbies are helpful for 
diverting the mind. Cabinet making or some metal hand-craft 
would be excellent for men to interest themselves in, particu¬ 
larly if their occupation is one calling entirely for mental 
work. Amateur photography is a splendid hobby. Botany, 
natural history, bee-farming, raising chickens, doves or rab¬ 
bits and innumerable other diversions are interesting and 
helpful. Gardening is an ideal hobby, that is discussed in 
detail elsewhere in this work, and is really a physical culture 
pastime. 

Respiratory Diseases are discussed in Volume IV, pages 
873, 963, and elsewhere. 

Sanitation.— What we call sanitation is an essential part 
of the requirements of health, but after the comprehensive dis¬ 
cussion of matters pertaining to pure air and ventilation, pure 
food, bathing, sunshine and the like, there is not much left to 
be said upon this as a special topic. We know that the lack 
of knowledge of sanitation has always been a prolific cause of 
disease among savages and semi-civilized nations, but fortu¬ 
nately some idea of sanitation is now very general even among 
those who have no special interest in physical training or any 
other phase of promoting or building health. 

Matters pertaining to disinfection and contamination are 
usually considered as of prime importance in connection with 
the subject of sanitation, but sunshine and pure air are such 
powerful forces in this direction that the physical culturist 
scarcely needs to concern himself about “germs.” His vitality 




38 


MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


and power of resistance will protect him anyway. At the 
same time, I do not advise anyone to deliberately play with 
and expose himself to infections and contaminations of all 
kinds. The fact that corrupt matter is foul in odor and utterly 
repugnant to our senses is sufficient to indicate that we should 
keep away from it, or get it away from us. 

Sex Hygiene and Problems are taken up in Volume V, 
page 2443. 

Questions of sewage and water supply are important ones 
in this connection, and should have the closest attention. It 
hardly needs saying that only the purest of water should be 
used for drinking purposes, and that where there is any doubt 
as to its quality it is best to either boil or distil it. Sometimes it 
is worth while to buy one of the small water-stills made for the 
home, which are quite generally advertised, and which may be 
operated on any small cook stove without trouble. In the 
country where there is no sewerage system it is especially im¬ 
portant that care be taken to have water wells located as far as 
practicable from possible sources of infection. Underground 
currents of water sometimes work great mischief in this way. 
(See discussion of Water beginning page 49 of this volume.) 

The universal use of the vacuum or suction cleaner will in 
the future probably become a great force in the direction of real 
sanitation in the home, especially where there are rugs and 
draperies. At present they are still rather expensive, but 
nevertheless already quite generally in use. 

Sleep. —It is said that one can live longer without food than 
one can without rest. In one sense, sleep is really a food. It 
feeds or rather gives the body an opportunity to feed upon 
itself. It induces that thorough mental and physical relaxation 
which is really the means of renewing life, energy and power. 
You may go to bed with the pangs of hunger ever so acute, 
but during sleep they will nearly always disappear. In some 
mysterious manner that no physiologist has ever explained, the 
body finds food within itself. During the hours of rest the 
functional processes have somehow renewed your energies and 
have added to your general strength. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


39 


Absolute relaxation is necessary to proper recuperation. It 
must be admitted that many people are unable to relax com¬ 
pletely. Their nerves are always on “edge.” There is a stiff¬ 
ness, a tenseness about them which, even during sleep, manifests 
itself by the manner in which they unconsciously grasp at the 
bed clothing. They often awake to find themselves lying rigid, 
every muscles and nerve in a tense condition. To rest prop¬ 
erly, to woo the great unconscious realm of slumber, you must 
absolutely relax every muscle, every nerve, every voluntary 
power of your body. You must learn to “let go.” Let the 
body hang limp and as nearly relaxed as possible. If it seems 
difficult to acquire this attitude, take note of the following: 
Raise your arm and then suddenly let it fall unrestrained by 
any directing effort of your will. Raise both arms and allow 
them to fall in the same manner. Raise both legs and do like¬ 
wise. After this, try to continue the feeling of “giving away,” 
as far as all parts of your body are concerned. 

Always choose a hard bed . A soft bed is enervating, not 
restful. The body sinks into the debilitating bedding and the 
tissues and muscles become flabby and weak and the circula¬ 
tion is interfered with, the skin being unable to throw off its 
impurities in a natural way. 

In the same way pillows are enervating, unhealthful and 
unrestful. The head sinks into the soft and smothering cush- 



When given to sleeping on the back no pillow should be used, or else 
a very low one. 































40 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ions; the breathing is thus rendered imperfect; the muscles 
of the neck are really strained instead of being rested because 
of this unnatural position. Yet this is the position assumed by 
millions nightly. The flesh of the face, instead of being un¬ 
touched and impassive through the night, is always half cov¬ 
ered, and the pressure upon it even by the soft pillows throws 
it out of shape, and causes unnatural folds that in time form 
into wrinkles. 

To assist Nature in her work of repairing the body during 
the night hours there is nothing so good as a moderately hard 
bed with no pillows, or very small ones. Naturally, if one has 
used several pillows for years, it will take a persistent trial of 
some months to prove that doing without them is beneficial. 
Many, women especially, suffer from constant headaches which 
are due to high pillows. In some of these cases where pillows 
have been forbidden by the physician, or very low ones made of 
corn-straw substituted for those of feathers or down, the head¬ 
aches have totally disappeared. 

Some illustrations of proper and improper positions in 
sleeping are here reproduced. 

It is a question what to do with the arms in sleep, as every¬ 
one has found out perhaps. If one lies upon one’s arm it is 
apt to stop the circulation, and to cause that sometimes painful 
sensation known as “pins and needles.” When the arms are 









OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


41 


placed downward in front of the body, it throws the body into 
a very peculiar angle. It has been advised that the most rest¬ 
ful position during sleep, that is, the one in which one will be 
less disturbed by dreams and from which one will awake most 
refreshed in the morning, is the opposite of that which has 
been maintained by the body for the greater part of the day. 
If a person while awake has been reaching upward a great 
deal, and so keeping the body extended to the full, it will be 
found that greater restfulness will be secured by taking a 
reverse position while in bed. There is then some excuse for 
doubling up the body a part of the time during sleep. Or, on 
the other hand, if one has been cramped up over a table or 
desk all the day, the greatest good will be obtained by extend¬ 
ing the body to the full length and lying as prone as possible. 
There are any number of niceties of posture to be taken, and 
each person must find out that which best suits his individual 
needs. 

Theoretically, one of the best positions for sleeping is lying 
on the right side, the arm under and back of you, or bending 
the arm at elbow with the wrist crossing the body under the 
waist. 

Sleeping on the back is generally recognized as unhygienic. 
I recommend that some hard substance be fastened at the small 
of the back—for instance, say a towel with a large knot tied 



A good position to assume during sleep. Lie on the right side, right arm behind, 
bent, and wrist under waist. 













42 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


so as to be in the middle of the back when one turns over, 
or some similar device that will have a tendency to pre¬ 
vent sleeping on the back. There is a story of a young man 
who fastened his good mother’s biscuit cutter to his back by 
means of a towel placed around his waist, and no further 
reports were received from him concerning nocturnal disturb¬ 
ances caused by the habit of back-sleeping. 

If inclined to suffer from heart trouble, be careful not 
to sleep on the left side too much, as this position sometimes 
has a tendency to aggravate this malady. Sleeping on the 
right side also assists the digestion of foods, as it places the 
pyloric opening of the stomach on the lower side of the body, 
and hence facilitates the passage of undigested food from the 
stomach to the intestines. 

There is a tendency to right-sideness in most individuals. 
It is true that during sleep assimilation is most active. Cir¬ 
culation is equalized, the work of the vital organs is lessened, 
and it may be that this right side position is, considering every¬ 
thing, the best. 

On retiring at night it is well to arrange the windows so 
that proper ventilation may be secured. You must be plenti¬ 
fully supplied with fresh, pure air. If you are afraid of 
draughts, you must try to annihilate that superstition and 
cultivate the fresh air habit. If not accustomed to sleeping 
with wide-open windows, do not adopt extreme measures at 
once. Gradually accustom yourself to breathing the pure 
outside air that at all times should be allowed the freest access 
to your sleeping room. Remember that the more nearly you 
breathe what is practically the outside atmosphere, the faster 
you will be able to build physical health. 

Do not cover too heavily while in bed. Use only sufficient 
covering to maintain warmth and no more. You can cover 
lightly on first retiring if you so desire, keeping other spreads 
near at hand, and if during the night you feel cold, add more. 

Do not breathe through your mouth. Mouth breathers 
usually snore and if you wish to break yourself of this disagree¬ 
able habit begin to cultivate breathing through the nose. By 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


43 


keeping in mind the necessity for so doing, 
you will acquire the habit of breathing 
properly while asleep. If you have ex¬ 
treme difficulty in breaking the mouth¬ 
breathing habit, a device can be worn that 
will prevent you from opening your 
mouth during sleep, or else a towel 
or handkerchief can be used for a similar 
purpose. For details regarding the causes 
of mouth breathing and constitutional 
treatment therefor, see page 806, Volume m?uth et b?eathing ev dCriSg 

jy A 0 sleep. 



Breathing through the mouth is ordinarily induced by 
catarrhal trouble, which must first be cured. Though catarrh 
is an exceedingly difficult disease to eradicate, an observance 
of the rules of health will usually accomplish a cure. 

Many experience a feeling of fatigue and exhaustion after 
a night of sound sleep. They cannot “understand” it; they 
imagine themselves “born tired,” and resign themselves to their 
fate. It is nothing of the kind. The moment of awakening 
should be the most glorious of the whole day. Close air, over¬ 
heated rooms, an over-abundance of heavy bedclothes, late 
suppers, overeating, drinking too little water, insufficient 
breathing, constipation—all have to play their part in pro¬ 
ducing this condition. The body throws off poisons more 
rapidly at night than during the daytime, and needs a greater 
supply of oxygen—hence the importance of fresh air at night. 
But it has been proved that sleeping for too long will also 
give one this feeling of ennui , of exhaustion—the reason being, 
apparently, that carbon dioxide accumulates in the system 
after a certain period has been reached, and this acts as a 
poison. All of which seems to prove to us that, if we wake 
from natural causes we should get up whenever we wake; 
and if we continue to lie in bed and sleep, on and off, for 
two or three hours longer, we p&y the penalty in added fatigue 
and ennui . 

Some natures certainly demand more sleep than others. It 




44 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


is foolish to lay down a law, and say that seven hours are 
enough—or eight, or whatever it may be. Each person is a law 
unto himself, in this respect. Those persons who live excitable, 
tense lives naturally need more sleep than those phlegmatic 
individuals who “take life as it comes,” and “do not worry 
about anything.” As a rule, brain-workers, and those who use 
their heads continuously, need more sleep than those who do 
not. Musfcular work necessitates deep but not prolonged 
sleep. However, no absolute rule can be given. Sleep until 
you feel refreshed , and if you feel “chronically tired,” and 
can afford the time, go to bed and stay there until you wake 
up refreshed. I have known of one or two cases where a 
woman deliberately stayed in bed for several days and nights 
continuously—so determined was she to “rest out” for once. 
But she got rid of a feeling of “chronic tiredness,” which she 
had experienced for years. 

One of the greatest problems which confronts the student 
of sleep is the question of insomnia. So many people suffer 
from it; and its causes are so varied and so complex that it is 
most difficult to say, very often, what its chief cause may be, 
and what measures would be best to effect its removal. Worry 
and excitement are well-known causes, constipation is a fre¬ 
quent cause (the irritation of retained ingesta frequently causes 
wakefulness), hearty suppers may cause insomnia—though I 
believe they generally have the opposite effect; an inactive skin 
is certainly a contributory factor; close, stuffy air is frequently 
to blame; congestion of blood in the head, together with cold 
feet, is found in hundreds of cases. The treatment must be 
largely determined by the cause; and if one plan fails, another 
must be tried. Insomnia can certainly be cured by a persistent 
course of body-building, and vanishes before the restoration of 
vitality; but it frequently supervenes only once ever so often; 
and then there is no time to undertake a long course of train¬ 
ing. Immediate, palliative measures must be adopted in order 
to occasion sleep that very nigfit. Of the various devices and 
methods which have been resorted to in the past, the following 
will probably be found effective in nearly all cases. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


45 


(1.) A prolonged warm bath is a very good method of 
reducing nervousness—when this is the cause—and inducing 
sleep. The patient should be placed, full length, in a bath 
of water about blood heat, and hot water should be added, every 
now and then, to keep the water at a constant temperature. 
The nerve-ends all over the body are in a state of tension, and 
need to be thoroughly relaxed by some artificial method before 
sleep is possible. This the warm water does. Do not be afraid 
to keep the patient in this bath—soaking, for half an hour 
or longer, if necessary. It may be found necessary, on occasion, 
to keep the patient in the water for several hours before relief 
is obtained. In order to prevent irritation or chapping of the 
skin, it should be rubbed all over with vaseline or some similar 
form of oil before the patient is placed in the water. 

(2.) Placing the feet in hot water for a few minutes will 
induce sleep in many cases—where the head is slightly con¬ 
gested, and the feet are cold. 

(3.) Hot water bottles will have the same effect very 
often. 

(4.) A glass of warm milk, just before retiring, will draw 
the blood down from the head, to the stomach, and induce sleep, 
in many instances. I do not think this is a very hygienic 
method of inducing sleep, but I believe that, in a case like this,* 
we often have to choose the lesser of two evils; and the ill 
effects of the milk are certainly less than a night’s sleeplessness. 

(5.) Monotonous stimulation will often have the effect of 
sending one to sleep. A metronome set going in the room will 
have this effect; but the “beats” must be comparatively slow. 
Or the tick of a watch may be listened to. Counting is usually 
inefficacious. 

(6.) The practice of making the mind a blank —thinking 
of a high black wall is very useful in many cases. I have used 
this method successfully on many occasions, and it induces sleep 
very frequently. 

(7.) Muscular relaxation is very helpful; indeed, this 
method is too little known, apparently, for its advantages are 
certainly very great. The method of procedure is as follows: 




46 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 

Lie flat on your back on the bed; assume a restful attitude. 
Now think of the back of your neck. You will probably find 
that it is tense and rigid; you are unconsciously holding your 
head on your shoulders, while the pillow should be supporting 
it. Relax these muscles; let your head sink back into the 
pillow; let the bed retain the whole weight of your head. Now 
pass, in thought, to the right arm and relax this in turn. Then 
the left arm; then the right leg; then the left leg. Finally re¬ 
lax the trunk, sink back on the bed, make the body as “heavy” 
as possible. By the time you have gone all round your body 
in this way you will probably find that your neck is again tense, 
and this must be again relaxed. Go round your body three or 



The use of too many and too soft pillows frequently prevents proper breathing. 















OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


47 



About the best position for sleeping. The weight of the body here rests mostly on 
the right side and forward part of the body. 



A fairly commendable position, recommended when there is slight tendency toward 
sleeplessness, provided the position of the hand with the arm far above head Is found 
comfortable. 



A good position that can be assumed for a short time when one Is inclined toward 
sleeplessness. The arms, whert held high above the head in this manner, will to a 
certain extent draw the blood from the head. 



A poor position; frequently assumed on cold nights when there is not a proper 

supply of bedclothing. 


Vol. 1—5 


























MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


48 


four times in this fashion, always ending up with your neck and 
head. You will be surprised at the “relief” you obtain; and I 
do not doubt that, after a few trials, you will be enabled to woo 
slumber almost at will by this method. 

(8.) Deep breathing is very helpful as a method of induc¬ 
ing sleep. Fresh air in the room is, of course, essential in this 
method. Yawning is a sign that the lungs are cramped and 
filled with carbon dioxide; and the stretch and accompanying 
yawn are but attempts on the part of Nature to induce greater 
activity of the lungs and thorax generally. Deep breathing 
will relieve this condition, and frequently succeeds in inducing 
sleep. 



A position frequently assumed by sleepers when cold. Neck, chest and abdomen 
are cramped, restricting the breathing and circulation. A sufficient supply of bed¬ 
clothing in cold weather will usually enable the steeper to avoid this position. 



In this position the raised knees cause the heart a great amount Of 
extra work, producing restlessness. 







OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


49 


(9.) A quick sponge bath in tepid water will soothe the 
nerves in many cases, and help to bring about the desired state. 

(10.) A salt rub is a good method—which should be taken 
just before retiring for the night. Sponge off afterward in 
cool water. 


(11.) Cold wet cloths to the head and back of the neck 
will be found very efficacious. 

(12.) A few muscular exercises in a well-ventilated room 
will often cure the most obstinate cases of insomnia. Bending 
exercises of all kinds are good; but they must be brisk and 
vigorous. Lack of muscular exercise is a frequent cause of 
insomnia. 

(13.) An air bath, taken just before retiring, is one of the 


best methods possible of in¬ 
ducing sleep. It is said that 
Ben Johnson, whenever he 
could not sleep, jumped out 
of bed, walked about the room 
in his night-clothes for several 
minutes, until he was thor¬ 
oughly cool, and the perspira¬ 
tion, if any, had evaporated. 
He then got back to bed again 
and slept like an infant. 

The Skin and Its Func¬ 
tions are described in detail in 
the present volume, page —. 
Care of the skin is touched 
upon in Volume II, page —, 
Volume V, page —, and else¬ 
where. 

The Teeth and Their 
Care is discussed in Volume 
II, page —•, and elsewhere. 

Water. —Scientists tell us 
that every part of the body, 
except the bones, is virtually a 



To keep water cool, wrap a wet linen 
or cotton cloth around jar or bottle in 
which it is contained. Place this vessel 
in a shallow dish containing a small quan¬ 
tity of water. The evaporation of the 
water from cloth will keep the contents 
of vessel ten degrees lower than that of 
the air, and, by absorption, the water in 
shallow dish will keep the cloth con¬ 
tinuously wet. 














50 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


fluid composed of millions of tiny cells which do their work 
and die. These dead cells, or the effete matter of which they 
are composed, are removed and eliminated and new cells are 
brought to replace them by means of a still thinner liquid that 
we call blood. Blood is thin or thick and flows through the 
body freely, or phlegmatically, according to its fluidity and the 
vigor possessed by the particles of which it is composed. This 
life, or vigor, is supplied by the food, the oxygen of the air, and 
sunlight, but the supply of water depends upon the food we 
eat and the water we drink. Hence it is important that we give 
to the body a sufficient quantity of pure water in order that the 
blood may be kept in its normal fluid condition, and the disease- 
producing effete matter eliminated. 

There is no cleansing agent as important as water, not 
only for the exterior of the body, but for the interior from 
the crown of the head to the soles of the feet. It is a simple 
matter to drink a glass of water, yet the results of the act are 
marvelous. A very small portion of it enters the intestines, 
but by far the larger quantity is absorbed into the blood and 
enters immediately into the circulation of this life-giving fluid. 

Sources of Water Supply. —There are five sources of water 
supply, as follows: 

1. Rain water always contains more or less impurities, 
both suspended and dissolved. Unless unusually careful about 
its cleanliness an analysis shows that it contains organic and 
inorganic substances. 

2. Spring Water which, as a rule, is purer than any 
other. It is an easy matter to have spring water analyzed 
or tested, and once tested its purity can generally be relied 
upon. 

3. River Waters. —Directly rain water comes in contact 
with the land it acquires fresh impurities. Most river water 
usually is dangerously impure, and offers great menace to 
health unless properly purified by filtration. If such water be 
taken and passed through an adequate filtering plant, carefully 
and conscientiously conducted, the water becomes practically 
safe for drinking purposes. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


51 


4. Surface Well Water is practically the same as river 
water, except that it is likely to be even more polluted. 

5. Deep Well Waters are generally palatable and whole¬ 
some. 

Detection of Impurities. —Water for drinking must 
fulfill certain conditions. There must be no smell to it, either 
when fresh or boiled. Its taste must be pleasant and fresh. 
When a large reservoir full of it is looked at, it must not be 
cloudy or yellowish, but of a pure blue or bluish-green color. 
Live drinking water always contains the three gases of air, 
namely, nitrogen, oxygen and carbonic acid. The reason that 
boiled water is always insipid and flat is because it has lost 
these gases. There should never be less than two to five cubic 
inches of gas in solution in one hundred cubic inches of water. 

Some chemists contend that water should always contain 
a few grains of mineral matter dissolved in it, such as car¬ 
bonate of lime, sulphate of chloride and nitrates of sodium, 
magnesia, etc. These mineral matters, however, should never 
exceed thirty grains in an imperial gallon of water, which 
weighs ten pounds, or seventy thousand grains. Other chemists 
declare that all such mineral matters are impurities, and that the 
less of them our drinking water contains the better. This 
seems the right view. 

Filtration of Water.— Household filters, where not 
properly cleansed, are a source of danger instead of a preven¬ 
tive. The right type adopted, it must have proper care. 

Distilled Water.— There has been much discussion as 
to whether water should be used in its “raw” state boiled, or 
distilled. The dangers of water in its “raw” state have al¬ 
ready been presented. Where, therefore, there is any doubt 
as to its purity it should be avoided. 

Many people think that boiling water is the best way to 
rid it of impurities. This is a grave mistake. Not only does 
boiling water deprive it of its life by forcing out the gases of 
the air, but the purest portion of it is carried away in steam. 
The result is that what impurities there were in the water re¬ 
main practically unchanged, but condensed , and, therefore, 




52 


MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


made more obnoxious by the evaporation of that liquid which 
was most nearly pure. If, however, one prefers to use boiled 
water it should always be aerated before drinking. This is done 
by pouring the water from one vessel to another several times 
so as to thoroughly mingle the air with it. This will take away 
the flat, insipid taste and restore some of the gases of which 
the boiling has robbed it. 

One is almost driven, if he be particular as to his water 
supply, to the use of distilled water. This he can purchase, 
relying upon the known integrity of the firm producing and 
disposing of it for its purity, or he can have it distilled in his 
own kitchen. 

Ice-Water .—The drinking of ice-water is not a natural 
habit. It has to be acquired, and its baneful and injurious 
effects upon the body cannot be questioned. 

There is no doubt whatever that many of the deaths that 
occur in the heat of summer, and which are commonly at¬ 
tributed to heart disease, are often caused by the shock of 
flooding the stomach with ice-water. 

Hot Water .—There is no doubt whatever that in many 
cases of disease the use of hot water is beneficial in washing the 
accumulation of slime, mucus, yeast-germs and undigested 
food from the stomach and increasing the peristaltic action 
of the intestines. But it does not necessarily follow that what 
is good to change an abnormal condition of disease is either 
necessary or good for a body that is in a state of normal health. 
The natural drink for man in his normal condition is cold water, 
though if it is a matter of choosing between tea or coffee and 
hot water, preference should certainly be given to the latter. 

Women's Exercises are treated in complete detail in 
Volume II, page —, and elsewhere. 




CHAPTER III 

HOW TO CONQUER DISEASE. 

A PPARENTLY this is one of the easiest of questions 
to answer. Almost any man would say that he could 
tell you what disease was in comparatively few words, 
and yet, when one considers it in the light of the theories pro¬ 
pounded by the various schools of science and medicine, it 
seems to become one of the most difficult of questions. For 
no sooner is an answer given than new questions spring for¬ 
ward, each one apparently more difficult to answer than the 
preceding one. 

The fact is, it is not necessary for us to know all the various 
theories and ideas that men of science hold in regard to disease. 
It is wiser and better that we devote our attention to a study 
of the conditions of perfect health and seek to attain these, 
with their consequent happy results. At the same time, it is 
well briefly to survey the field of scientific thought as to this 
question, and then endeavor to eliminate the mystery and con¬ 
sequent dread that make disease such a terror to the afflicted. 

One authority states that “any departure from the normal 
performance of the natural functions is defined as disease.” 
Webster says: “Any state of a living body in which the 
natural functions of the organs are interrupted or disturbed, 
either by defective or preternatural action, without a disrup¬ 
tion of parts by violence which is called a wound.” 

These definitions imply that one understands what is the 
normal performance of the natural functions. Without any 
attempt at detailed accuracy, it may generally be stated that 
that exercise of the functions of the body that is accomplished 
perfectly without discomfort, distress or pain is a normal per¬ 
formance. For instance, the person, be he young or old, who 
sees perfectly with both eyes, and without strain or distress, 
objects that are close by, and objects that are at a distance, 
and recognizes all colors and forms readily, may be said to 
have normal eyesight. The man who breathes naturally and 
easily, whether at rest or during any reasonably violent exer- 


53 



54 


OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


tion, and continues to do so year after year, may be said to have 
lungs and breathing apparatus that normally perform their 
natural functions. That person who continuously and regu¬ 
larly finds the excretory canal in perfect working order, with¬ 
out constipation or looseness, or any irritation in either stom¬ 
ach, bowels or anus, is undoubtedly enjoying the normal per¬ 
formance of the natural functions of excrementation. 

Everything that deviates from these normal functions is 
what is meant by disease. 

You go to a man suffering with a severe cough, great Expec¬ 
toration of phlegm, and with pain in his lungs. Ask him the 
question: “What is disease?” He answers: “I am diseased, 
for I suffer.” You go to a physician and he tells you that that 
man is suffering from the disease called tuberculosis. 

You see the child walking down the street, his hand to his 
ear, crying bitterly. You ask his mother what is the matter. 
She says he has the earache. That is an acute disease, giving 
intense pain for the time being, but which quickly disappears if 
intelligently treated. 

You see a highly strung woman suffering from hysteria. 
She will tell you that that is a disease that afflicts her con¬ 
stantly, and that makes life unbearable. 

Each of these persons thinks he has answered the question: 
What is disease? But immediately the mind asks: Are these not 
merely the statements of manifestations of disease? These are 
merely symptoms. What is the disease itself? How is it 
caused? Why is it caused? 

If one could tell, as a result of microscopic examination, 
the peculiar condition of the organ and of its component parts 
that are the seat of the pain, even that knowledge would not 
satisfactorily answer the question. 

Yet what a real thing disease is, and what awful power 
it manifests in human life. 

Every one of the hundreds of thousands of physicians in 
the land—physicians of every school, allopathic, homeopathic, 
osteopathic, hydropathic, electric, eclectic, and the so-called 
new thought, mind cure and faith cure—is a proof of the terri- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


55 


ble hold disease has on mankind. Nor can it be ignored that 
in the numerous Christian Science churches—magnificent 
architectural structures—is to be seen another proof of organi¬ 
zation to eliminate the horrors of disease. Every hospital, 
every sanitarium, every medical school and college, every drug 
store, speaks loudly of the power of disease. Think of the 
hundreds of thousands of people, from the chemist to the 
laborer, engaged in the making and dispensing of drugs for 
medical purposes. Think of the millions of dollars expended 
every year by the makers of nostrums, or so-called quack medi¬ 
cines, for advertising their nefarious wares. The newspapers 
of the country receive annually millions from this source, and 
one cannot move in a city or country but monster hill-boards 
thrust their announcements of these deceptive wajes before 
one’s eyes. 

What is disease? Go to the thousands of hospitals scattered 
throughout the land and ask the poor victims of its ravages, 
lolling and tossing on beds of pain, whose days are one long 
anguish, waiting for night, and whose nights are one long 
prayer for morning. 

It makes the mind dizzy and the heart ache with sympathy. 
It at once discourages and appals to contemplate the dread¬ 
ful varieties of awful manifestations that disease presents. 
Go from ward to ward, and cot to cot, and see the victims of 
disease writhing and burning in the grasp of such fevers as 
typhoid and typhus. 

One absolutely grows sick at heart as he thinks of endeavor¬ 
ing to set before an intelligent mind the diverse manifestations 
of this fell monster, disease. Its manifestations are protean. 
As soon as you have become familar with what you think to 
be all his appearances, by a flank movement he brings another 
army of horrors before you, and when these have been studied 
and you are about to lie down to rest, he marches before you, 
with fife and drum, another regiment, and these different regi¬ 
ments we designate in general terms, such as “Nervous Dis¬ 
eases,” “Diseases of the Respiratory System,” “Diseases of 




56 


MACFADDEN J S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the Heart and Blood Vessels/’ “Infectious Diseases,” “Dis¬ 
eases of the Digestive System,” “Diseases of the Thyroid 
Glands,” “Diseases of the Drinary 'Organs,” “Constitutional 
Diseases,” “Diseases of the Muscular System,” “Diseases 
Caused by Animal Parasites,” etc. 

One cannot pass away from this subject without a brief 
reference to the varied forms of insanity. No one who has 
visited an insane asylum and has been allowed to see all the 
manifestations that diseases of the mind take but has been 
thrilled with horror, and absolutely weakened by the over¬ 
whelming power of the sympathy that has arisen within his 
heart. Excitement of the highest degree, ravings, yellings, 
shriekings, tearing of hair and clothes, howlings, cursings, with 
the wild vagaries of hallucinations, and all the way down the 
long gamut to the fearful horrors of despondency and melan¬ 
cholia. 

No wonder that the very thought of disease brings terror 
to the human heart; that it seems the most mysterious and 
dreadful scourge that can be visited upon human nature. 

Hence it will be seen that disease is the unquestioned curse 
of civilization, swallowing up the peace, happiness and com¬ 
fort of a large part of the lives of hundreds of thousands of 
people, demanding a tribute of millions upon millions of money 
to combat it, requiring the best energies of thousands upon 
thousands of educated and cultured men of the world to fight 
against it, and thus depriving humanity of the happiness and 
usefulness of not only its victims, but of those whose time and 
energy are expended in overcoming its dreadful ravages. 

If diseases were of such a character that scientific men 
were absolutely agreed as to the various symptoms they pre¬ 
sent, and they knew absolutely what and how much of a certain 
drug to administer to get rid of that disease, we would not so 
severely condemn their theories and methods. But what are 
the facts ? We find, and they openly confess, that their theories 
as to what disease is and how to combat it are as diverse and 
chaotic as it is possible for them to be, and their many and 
diverse schools of medicine clearly attest this fact. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


57 


Take, for instance, allopathy , which is the name given to 
the old-fashioned system of curing disease by strong doses of 
drugs. The word itself explains the theory and practice of its 
followers. It is made up of two Greek words, alios and pathos, 
the first signifying another , and the second, suffering . As 
Webster defines it, it is “that method of medical practice which 
seeks to cure disease by the production of a condition of the 
system either different from, opposite to, or incompatible with 
the condition essential to the disease to be cured.” The theory 
of the allopathist, therefore, is that the way to remedy a dis¬ 
ease is to produce a contrary or warring disease in the same 
body, that will be powerful enough ta nullify, destroy or drive 
out the first disease. 

Now, how is this to be done? 

First of all he must determine what the disease is. This 
is called making a diagnosis. With a perfect science there 
should be no real difficulty in accomplishing this. But expe¬ 
rience demonstrates that in many cases ten different physicians 
will make as many different diagnoses. 

Let us, however, suppose we have gone to one physician, 
enumerated the symptoms of our trouble, and he has diagnosed 
the disease. He is now ready to treat it. What is his method? 

The allopathic physician has a list of drugs, how many hun¬ 
dreds or thousands, the layman can readily understand from 
the vast number displayed in the drug stores. Yet these are 
only a small proportion of the great whole. He also has a 
book called the “pharmacopoeia,” which contains a list of drugs 
that the profession recognizes, and the doses that are to be ad¬ 
ministered to produce the effect desired. 

Having diagnosed the disease he now prescribes one or 
more drugs, to be administered in a certain form, and so often. 
This is his chief work. He asks a few general questions about 
appetite, the action of the bowels, etc., and gives a few general 
directions—that too often amount to nothing—and then leaves 
the drug or drugs to do the rest. 

How does this dosing system actually work out in daily 
practice? Here are two persons suffering from the same 




58 MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


symptoms: One is a child a year old, feeble, delicate and very 
susceptible, the other a man of rugged frame, of great physical 
power, “as strong as an ox,” and no more nervous or refined 
than the ox. In each of these cases the judgment of the physi¬ 
cian is left to determine, first, the particular drug he shall use— 
for it must not be forgotten that there are often a score of 
drugs all said to possess power in combating this particular 
disease; second, whether it shall be mixed with any other, or 
how many other drugs; third, the amount of the dose, and 
fourth, its frequency. 

It must also be remembered that we have to presuppose 
the physician’s diagnosis to be correct. He now administers 
the dose. 

What is the result? 

Is it any exaggeration or untruth to say that in hundreds 
and thousands, nay, millions of cases each year the results are 
not what were expected? And how could it be otherwise? As 
some of its exponents admit, the whole “Science” is based 
upon guesswork, and the cleverest guesser is the best physi¬ 
cian. Instead of following rational and natural methods the 
allopathist seeks to produce another and warring disease in the 
body of the patient, and thus hopes to free him from all dis¬ 
ease. How absurd and ridiculous when looked at from the 
clear standpoint of unprejudiced reason. The fact that one 
may describe the same symptoms in exactly the same words to 
ten different physicians, and each one will diagnose the disease 
as different from each other, and each will prescribe a different 
drug for its cure, should lead thoughtful and intelligent people 
to place no reliance upon the guesswork system by which the 
ordinary drugging physician is controlled. 

While we would not have it thought for one moment that 
we universally rail against all men of the medical profession, 
for we recognize that many of them, no matter how mistaken 
they are, are men of the highest integrity and honor, yet we 
know it has been almost the universal fact that physicians, when 
consulted by prospective patients, have made it their practice 
to throw all the air of mystery possible around the case, using 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


59 


long and incomprehensible words, declaring that it was a most 
difficult case to handle, and thus adding the fear and terror of 
the unknown and mysterious to be combated by the already 
frightened sufferer. 

Now come the homeopathists and present their claims and 
theories. Webster defines homeopathy as “the art of curing 
founded on resemblances; the theory and its practice that dis¬ 
ease is cured by remedies which produce on a healthy person ef¬ 
fects similar to the symptoms of the complaint under which the 
patient suffers; the remedies being usually administered in 
minute doses.” 

Here then we have the very opposite of allopathy. The 
homeopathist tries, by drugs, to produce in the patient the very 
symptoms his disease shows, while the allopathist seeks, by 
drugs, to produce opposite symptoms. 

Apparently the fundamental theories upon which homeo¬ 
pathy is founded are just as misleading and unstable as those 
advocated by allopathy. It must be admitted, however, that 
homeopathic physicians in general have made a decided step 
in advance in getting away from the strong drugs used by the 
allopathic physician. The minute doses of sugar-pills cannot 
possibly have the same deleterious effects inevitably produced 
by the strong drugs used in allopathy. 

Both allopathists and homeopathists are firm advocates of 
the “germ” theory of disease, and both schools have instilled 
terrible fears in the hearts of humanity by the frightful stories 
they have told of the ravages of these germs upon the human 
system. Yet what does common sense and reason affirm? Do 
they not clearly show that if there was anything in their theory 
every inhabitant of our larger cities would cease to live within 
six months. The average dweller in a city during the day will 
breathe millions of disease germs. You will often find the air 
in the New York subway, for instance, so thick with germs you 
can almost taste them. Now if there was anything in the germ 
theory, the employees of those various enterprises where thou¬ 
sands of people congregate would soon fall victims to some 
serious disease. But there are no manifestations of this nature. 




60 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


By this we do not mean to affirm that the microscope does 
not reveal germs in human organisms. But what we wish to 
emphasize, with all the power we possess, is, that the healthy 
man or woman need no more be afraid of disease germs than 
of the man in the moon. The healthy organism has no place 
for germs. They can get no foothold, nor, if by accident they 
do happen to lodge in the healthy human body, can they find 
any nutriment. The result is, they die or are immediately ex¬ 
pelled. Hence the medical profession has done a cruel, wicked 
and heartless thing in filling the hearts of humanity with dread 
of these germs. 

Fear is in itself one of the greatest causes of disease; indeed, 
it is worse than disease, for it destroys the peace of mind that 
alone makes life worth living. No healthy person need ever 
he afraid, whether it be of contagious disease, parasites, or 
germs. We affirm with the greatest assurance that the univer¬ 
sal dread of germs is unnecessary, injurious, untrue and there¬ 
fore unscientific and the sooner we are rid of this foolish fear 
the better will humanity be. 

We now come to consider the claims of the osteopath. 
Webster says osteopathy is “a form of treatment based upon 
the scientific manipulation of the bones, supplemented by other 
manual manipulations, with the idea of restoring, facilitating, 
or improving the functions of the body.” In other words, oste¬ 
opathy tells us that disease is due to lesions of the spine and 
that the removal of these defects will in all cases remedy the 
disease. 

This I believe to be at least partially true. The lesions in 
the spine may be the cause of some disease manifested in some 
other part of the body, but we are also assured that the spinal 
lesions are often caused by trouble elsewhere. 

Yet our own experience has demonstrated that there is 
much practical usefulness in osteopathy, no matter what the 
theories are, and we firmly believe that it comes nearer to 
solving the problems presented by disease than either of the 
older schools of medicine, which, by the way, is not saying very 
much. It is, however, a step in the right direction. It objects 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


61 


to creating either “warring” or “similar” diseases in the body 
of the patient. 

Thus far, therefore, we have no conflict with it, but, as I 
shall clearly show later, it does not go far enough. We do not 
believe in the naturalness or efficiency of the “neck cracking” 
treatments that are often administered by osteopaths. There 
may be some necessity for these extreme measures when there 
is actual need for spinal adjustment, but when otherwise 
the stimulation of the spine can be accomplished without the 
“cracking” process. We have a case on our hands at this writ¬ 
ing where these severe measures in spinal adjustment have 
apparently bruised the nerves issuing from the parts of the 
spine that were so treated, and though months have elapsed 
since the treatment was administered the patient is still far 
from well. Intelligent treatment is resulting in gradual im¬ 
provement, and final and complete recovery may be looked for, 
but it was an emphatic lesson of the possible dangers of these 
extreme methods. 

The electric practitioner believes that the potent force of 
the body is electric, and that, when a person, through disease, 
is unable to absorb or generate sufficient electric force to exhibit 
the exhilarating health described in Chapter I of Volume I, 
this lack of electricity may be artificially supplied. 

As this whole matter is a pure theory, though patients do 
express some feeling of satisfaction in many instances after 
receiving artificial electric currents, we have nothing particu¬ 
larly to say either for or against it, though it is an interesting 
fact to note that the practitioner in America, who, today, more 
than any other physician, uses artificial electricity on his pa¬ 
tients, is himself such a perfect dynamo of electric energy, 
naturally absorbed or generated, that he never goes near one 
of his own machines for generating it. This demonstrates our 
belief, namely, that the person who lives properly, in accord¬ 
ance with hygienic principles, needs no artificial electricity. 
It might be well to mention that numerous cases have come to 
us who have maintained that they were injured by electric 
treatment. Electricity is a powerful agent, and the results of 




G2 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


its improper use would unquestionably be seriously destructive. 
And remember that little or nothing is known of the nature 
of electricity and therefore it is easily possible to make danger¬ 
ous mistakes. 

Then comes the eclectic physician. He is one who believes 
in “selecting”—for eclectic practically means selecting —from 
the methods and medicines of all schools, and combining or 
using them as he chooses. He, therefore, has the widest kind of 
latitude and may be a most useful aid to natural healing and 
development of power, or, on the other hand, a retrogressive 
practitioner of the most dangerous class. 

We have not yet referred to the hydropathist. He is one 
who “follows a mode of treating diseases by the copious and 
frequent use of pure water, both internally and externally.” 
“This system,” says Webster, “is said to increase the cutaneous 
exhalation to a very large amount, and thus to draw off speed¬ 
ily from the blood certain deleterious matters.” Hippocrates 
had a practical knowledge of the beneficial effects of hot and 
cold water in the treatment of disease, and many of his direc¬ 
tions have not been improved upon in two thousand years. 
From his day to this, water, hot and cold, applied internally 
and externally, has been used as an aid to the body to rid it 
of the poisons and deleterious substances which cause the symp¬ 
toms we term disease. We believe thoroughly in the science of 
hydrotherapy—the modern name applied to this method of 
treatment. We use it constantly, adding at the same time 
hygienic care in diet, fresh air, sanitation, etc., and, more par¬ 
ticularly, the development, by Physcultopathy, of a body 
strong enough to eliminate all poisons, resist the encroachment 
of all germs, parasites, etc., and thus free from the possibility 
of ordinary disease. 

We now come to a brief consideration of New Thought, 
Mind Cure, Faith Cure and Christian Science, in their relation 
to disease. As all of these systems deal with the body only 
through the mind, and steadfastly abstain from the use of 
drugs, we have nothing to say against them. We believe it pos¬ 
sible to carry some of their principles to extremes, but no matter 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


G3 


how extreme their adherents may be they cannot suffer more 
from their trust in their own mentality, in the God they wor¬ 
ship, or in their belief that God is all in all, and mortal man a 
temporary illusion, than have the victims of the older systems 
of medicine. We deem this subject of such great importance, 
that in this chapter readers will find a discussion devoted to 
our ideas as to the power of the mind over the body and its 
diseases. 

We have thus, in a broad and general manner, discussed the 
various and conflicting theories of disease and methods of com¬ 
bating it. Before presenting our own thought and methods 
we desire to call attention to a few practical considerations that 
should not be overlooked. 

At the outset we believe it will be generally conceded that 
there are few indeed who enjoy that perfect and abounding 
health described in the preceding chapter, and that there are 
but few who are not familiar with disease and its consequent 
pain in one form or another. Is it stating the matter too 
strongly to affirm that to the generality of mankind disease is 
the thing dreaded most of all, and to the suffering, the most in¬ 
sistent thing in life? Few people can rise above the immediate 
ravages of disease and pain and continue their daily vocations 
as if they were in perfect health. 

Yet, in spite of the apparent dominant power of disease, 
it is our mission to come to the afflicted sons and daughters of 
man with the most perfect encouragement and hope. We wish, 
in all earnestness, sympathy and conscientiousness, to help 
remove this fearful dread of disease on the part of humanity, 
and implant in its stead an assurance that disease is unneces¬ 
sary and abnormal and therefore preventable and curable. 

Whatever may be the extent of our lack of knowledge as 
to the exact nature of disease, there are many things of which 
we are sure. We know that certain courses of action will posi¬ 
tively produce some form of disease. For instance, a man may 
be in perfect health. Let him, however, shut himself up in a 
badly ventilated room, refuse to go out of doors, refuse to exer¬ 
cise, and at the same time persist in eating three heavy meat 

Vol. 1—6 




MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


04 


meals per day, mixing up the meat with every other kind of 
food given in the ordinary first-class hotel dinner. Does it need 
any great medical knowledge to know what the result will be? 
Let a man refuse to sleep for a month; what will ensue ? Or let 
him drink whiskey and smoke strong tobacco from morning to 
night! Or shut himself in an absolutely dark dungeon for a 
few months! Or indulge to excess in running, or, as the Sacred 
Writer puts it, “squander his strength on women.” Every 
man knows that these things are bound to produce distress, dis¬ 
comfort, disease, and that if the evils are persisted in the dis¬ 
ease cannot eliminate the poisons that have accumulated in the 
blood and body, and death ensues. 

Seeing, therefore, that certain courses of action are injur¬ 
ious to health, it is natural and rational to assume that there 
are other courses which are beneficial to health. We study the 
lives, the daily actions and habits of those men and women 
who live in perfect, or almost perfect, health and what do we 
find? Almost invariably that, in one way or another, they fol¬ 
low, consciously or unconsciously, the pathway that we have 
marked out and set forth as the pathway of Physcultopathy— 
the method of cultivation of the body. Thus, therefore, we 
come naturally to a consideration of the Physcultopathic stand¬ 
point in relation to health and disease. 

At the very outset we wish to call attention to the marked 
difference that exists between the principles that govern the 
various schools and theories of medicine and the school of heal¬ 
ing we call Physcultopathy. The former deal with disease; 
they fight, combat, struggle against the evil. Theirs is a war¬ 
fare to overcome an evil. On the other hand, our philosophy 
and methods are positive. We seek to establish health. We 
make health the habit of the body and mind, and where health 
is there is no room for disease. We cannot emphasize this point 
too strongly upon our readers. Get HEALTH, abounding, 
vital, exhilarating Health, and disease will flee away from you 
as the darkness of night flees from the powerful rays of the 
morning sun. Health, Life, is opposed to Disease, Death. 
The average individual merely exists. He does not live in the 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


65 


true sense of the word, and when the question is propounded, 
“Is life worth living?” he has good reason for hesitating before 
making a reply. If you are living in every sense of the word; 
if you know the meaning of health and strength of the highest 
degree; if you have been fully, completely developed, you are 
thrilled always with the pleasure of mere living. Living 
to you is beautiful; you are full of strength; you have a surplus 
supply of vim and energy. You are in complete possession of 
manhood or womanhood. When you possess such a power, an 
irresistible force presses you onward. Your pleasures come 
from activity. You are active because you love it. You work 
because you find pleasure in it, and disease has no dread for 
you, for, knowing its impotency to harm, you are filled with 
self-confidence. You know there is no need to worry, no mat¬ 
ter what disease may threaten you. You can be self-composed; 
you can say to yourself, “I fear no disease, for I am so strong 
that I cannot be attacked by disease.” 

In approaching the consideration of disease from the Phvs- 
cultopathic standpoint, there are two most important ideas that 
we wisli to advance. These are, first, that, in the main, there is 
hut one disease, and, second, that disease is a beneficent process 
of nature instead of the enemy it seems to be. Let us endeavor 
fully to elucidate these two propositions, which to many will be 
positively startling. 

1. There is, in the main, but one disease. We do not claim 
infallibility for our opinions, and this is merely a strong opin¬ 
ion, as the result of a careful study of thousands of cases 
brought under our immediate notice, and of all the theories of 
diseases and medicine propounded by the many and various 
“schools.” Notice, also, that we say “in the main.” Naturally, 
all diseases caused by accidents, such as fire, falling from high 
buildings, partial drowning, wounds made by knives, gun shots 
or some other method outside of the body, the taking of poisons, 
the presence of animal parasites, etc., do not come under the 
general category. 

Hippocrates, often called the father of medicine, held 
to this idea, that disease exists merely in the fluids of 




66 


MACFAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the body; in other words, it is impurity of the blood. This dis¬ 
ease may manifest itself in hundreds of different ways. There 
may appear thousands of symptoms. Medical men have named 
these various symptoms and they have been classed by them 
as different diseases (we have already named many of them), 
but they are all the result of one disease. Practically every 
advocate of natural curative methods believes there is but one 
disease and that disease is impurity of the blood. 

Blood may be made impure in a thousand different ways, 
and these ways will be fully discussed and presented in the 
fourth volume of this work, and elsewhere; but, in brief, 
it may be stated that the various organs that have to do 
with the making of this vital fluid have certain functions to 
perform. If these are interfered with, or disturbed, the work 
is improperly, imperfectly accomplished. This results in the 
retention in the blood of certain poisonous or deleterious ele¬ 
ments or substances which should not be there. If the eliminat¬ 
ing organs are unable to do their important work, and the im¬ 
purities remain and pass into the circulation, disease—discom¬ 
fort, distress, pain—sooner or later ensues. 

2. This latter fact now leads us naturally to our next pro¬ 
position, viz., that disease is a beneficent process of Nature, 
instead of the enemy it seems to be. If there were no discom¬ 
fort, distress, pain, there would be no warning given to the 
poisoned man that his body was diseased, and in a shorter or 
longer period death would ensue as the result. But the pain 
gives forceful warning. It calls his attention. It says, Halt! 
There’s something wrong here! Remedy these wrong condi¬ 
tions or there will be greater trouble! And the speedier the 
warning is heeded, and the cause of the trouble removed, the 
sooner is the disease cured. Hence, is not our second proposition 
apparent, that “Disease is a beneficent process of Nature, in¬ 
stead of the enemy it seems to be”? In other words, disease is 
the endeavor of the body to get rid of that within itself which, 
if retained, will cause worse disease, or more or less speedy 
death. It is the sign-board at the railway crossing, the ringing 
of the bell, the beacon of the lighthouse that warns from the 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


67 


destroying locomotive, the sunken reef, the rocky shore, that 
would otherwise dash you into constant suffering or a speedy 
death. 

That I am not advocating a mere notion of my own in 
thus emphasizing what I believe disease really to be, let me 
quote from an address recently delivered by Sir Frederick 
Treves at the Inaugural meeting of the Edinburgh Philosophi¬ 
cal Institution. Sir Frederick is an eminent personage in the 
medical world. Fie was Surgeon-in-Ordinary to King Edward 
of England from 1901 to the time of his death. I quote 
his exact words as cabled from England to the New York 
Herald: 

“In the popular view,” he says, “it is held that disease is a 
calamity, that its end is destruction and that it is purposeless, 
except in one direction—that of doing harm. 

“Popular terms bear testimony to the prevalence of that 
belief. A man is said to be ‘struck down’ by disease as by the 
avenging angel. It seizes upon him as does a roaring lion. 
It consumes him as does a fire. The attitude of the medical 
man towards disease is that of an opponent to deadly in¬ 
fluences. 

“He has to combat an enemy to mankind whose every move¬ 
ment is dark and malicious. There is no symptom of disease 
that is not believed to be noxious and, as such, must be stamped 
out with relentless determination. 

“If the patient be ill, the illness must be stayed. If he 
coughs, the cough must cease. If he fails to take food, he must 
be made to eat. And why? Because there are manifestations 
of disease and, therefore, of ill intent and to be banished. 

“I hold that there is nothing preternatural in disease; that 
its phenomena or symptoms are marked by purpose and that 
that purpose is beneficent. 

“Disease is one of the good gifts, for its motive is benevo¬ 
lent and protective. I cannot express that more precisely than 
by saying that, if it were not for disease, the human race would 
soon be extinct.” 

Sir Frederick Treves then demonstrated his proposition 




68 


MA CFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


by instances. His first was that of a wound and the superven¬ 
ing infianimation which was a process of cure to be imitated 
rather than hindered. 

Peritonitis, which had always been spoken of as the operat¬ 
ing surgeon’s deadliest enemy, was in reality his best friend. 

The general mortality of the common disease known as 
appendicitis was low. This fortunate circumstance was due to 
peritonitis, for without that much abused ally every case of 
this disorder would be fatal. 

Another instance given was that of a common cold which 
was, no doubt, a so-called bacterial disease. 

“Catarrh and persistent sneezing are practical means of 
dislodging bacteria from the nasal passages, while the cough 
removes them from the windpipe.” 

“According to popular medicine,” he said, “ the phenomena 
constituting disease are purposeless, profitless and wantonly 
distressful, so that the victim demands from the physician 
means for stamping out the trouble. These symptoms, how¬ 
ever, are in the main manifestations of a process of cure and 
are so far benevolent that without them a common cold might 
be a fatal malady.” 

These ideas so forcefully presented by Sir Frederick cannot 
be too strongly impressed upon the mind, or too widely dis¬ 
seminated. They would do much to awaken in the thoughtful, 
at least, a horror of all systems of drugging which seek to stifle 
these notes of warning given by disease. The physician who 
gives morphine to the sufferer from appendicitis is simply invit¬ 
ing death. The pain is Nature’s call for help, for relief—and 
this call should be intelligently obeyed and not stilled by the 
deadening influences of potent drugs. 

As I wrote many years ago: “Disease is a process of cure. 
It is the result of efforts on the part of the functional system 
to bring about a normal condition of health. 

“It is the route back to health. 

“It is the means adopted to throw off the various accumu¬ 
lations of foreign or impure matter which has interfered with 
the normal condition of health. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


69 


“A disease becomes chronic when the conditions producing 
it become chronic. 

“If a boil appears on the body one does not usually adopt 
means to drive its virulent contents back into the system, but 
allows it to run its course, or else tries to hasten the process of 
expelling the impurities it contains. 

“Nearly all diseases can literally be compared to a boil. 
A boil rids the system of impurities—it is a means adopted to 
reach normal health. 

“Nearly all diseases are similar. When they appear they 
are like a boil in its first stages. They are preparing the way 
for the expulsion of impurities with which the system is over¬ 
loaded. 

“Even if it were possible with the use of a drug to cure or 
drive into some other channel a disease immediately upon its 
appearance, it would be like driving the contents of a boil back 
into the system. The disease must run its course —It is the 
process of cure. 

“If this great truth can once be thoroughly understood, 
one need never have fear of any disease. 

“There are rare occasions where the accumulations of im¬ 
purities are so copious that the symptoms of the disease assume 
such virulence as to cause death, but such cases are extremely 
exceptional, and only occur when the patient’s habits have been 
most uncommonly perverted.” 

In further illustration of this position, let us consider one or 
two other diseases and endeavor to show that the pain accom¬ 
panying the disease—which to most people is all they care 
to know about disease—is their best friend under the evil con¬ 
ditions that exist. 

For instance, let us take the dread disease called pneu¬ 
monia. This disease is nothing more than what might be 
termed a cold on the lungs. To be sure, you must be vitally 
depleted in order to be attacked by this complaint, though 
remember you may appear vigorous, you may look healthy, 
your cheeks may be red, you may be a picture of vital vigor, 
and yet may not be immune from this disease. Very fleshy 




70 


MA CFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


men or women, especially meat-eaters, or alcohol drinkers, are 
liable to be attacked by pneumonia, and it is really more diffi¬ 
cult to effect a cure in such persons than when there are less of 
the ordinary signs that indicate vigorous health. Let us say, 
however, that fat is not health. Too red cheeks are a sign 
of disease rather than of health. It is more difficult to cure a 
fleshy person of a dangerous disease than it is one of medium 
weight or even those termed thin. When one is attacked by 
pneumonia, there are frequently knife-like pains in the chest 
and excruciating soreness all about this region of the body, and 
when the disease begins to abate, you eliminate a vast amount 
of mucus or phlegm from the lungs. Now this vile poison had 
accumulated in the body, because it could not be thrown out by 
the ordinary organs, and you have therefore had pneumonia. 
The disease has appeared simply to throw out these poisons, 
these foreign elements, which, if they had remained in the body, 
would undoubtedly have caused death. Pneumonia may be 
said to have intervened and saved your life. This idea may 
seem strange to the uninitiated, but not to those who have a 
clear conception of the nature of disease and its purpose. 

Pneumonia is not necessarily a dangerous disease, if treated 
in the proper manner. Where natural methods are used, pneu¬ 
monia is rarely followed by death. The percentage of deaths 
is so small that it is hardly worth considering, although the 
mortality record from this disease ranges from twenty to thirty 
per cent, when medical methods are used. A larger part of 
these deaths are caused solely through improper treatment, 
through a want of understanding of the nature and cause of 
disease. The patients die because it is declared that they have 
to be fed, because a certain amount of nourishment is supposed 
to be necessary to keep up the strength of the patient. The 
digestive organs of one who is attacked by pneumonia are not 
in a condition to assimilate food, and if food is forced into an 
unwilling stomach, a large amount of poison is certain to be 
absorbed and circulated through the blood from the undigested 
matter the patient consumes. When you are suffering from a 
complaint of this character, your entire bodily strength is 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


71 


needed for the one purpose of cleansing the body. You have 
not an iota of energy left to digest food, and every mouthful 
of food given adds to the poison that must be eliminated. 

Many other diseases might be taken up and dwelt upon in 
a similar manner. There are the various signs that appear as 
the result of skin diseases. These diseases are known by many 
names, and yet they are simply an outward manifestation of an 
internal condition. They are brought there by the blood. The 
disease is not simply superficial, it is actually in the blood. 
It is a part of the blood. Of course, there are skin diseases that 
are supposed to be contagious. They are passed from one to 
another, but as a rule such diseases are brought about by a min¬ 
ute insect, and a better way to cure complaints of this kind is 
to use some method of destroying the insect. In such cases 
I believe in the use of a poison that will kill these insects, just 
as I believe in the use of poison to kill rats and mice. Medicines 
and poisons are useful under such circumstances, but I know 
of few other occasions where they are required. 

Health and strength and poison cannot possibly harmonize 
—they are not related. When you put poison into the body 
every organ which comes in contact with that poison is excited 
to the greatest possible degree of activity for the purpose of 
eliminating it. Take a small quantity of alcohol, or use one of 
the patent medicines that contain a liberal quantity of this 
poison. Take a spoonful, and it may cause you to feel tempo¬ 
rarily benefited, refreshed. This result, however, is produced 
simply by a momentary excitement of the internal organs. 
There is no permanent benefit from a remedy of this kind. One 
simply makes the various organs work a little harder to throw 
out the poison that you have used, and the result of this waste 
of vital vigor must be an injury instead of a benefit. The alco¬ 
hol, it must be remembered, makes absolutely no change in its 
transit through the body, and every organ with which it comes 
in contact is compelled to make an extra effort in order to be 
rid of the poison. 

The body is at all times doing the best it can to maintain 
health and strength. When you consider the abuse that the 




72 


MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


average human body endures in this day and age, one might 
reasonably come to the conclusion that man is the toughest ani¬ 
mal upon the face of the earth. We hear much talk about a cat 
having nine lives, but the ordinary man or woman of to-day 
surely has ninety-nine. There is no living creature upon the 
face of the earth that could exist under the conditions that the 
average human being of to-day endures. Take any wild animal 
of the forest—even the fiercest, strongest lion, and make him 
live as a civilized man, eating three meals a day whether 
he needs them or not, and I would venture the assertion that 
his great strength would lessen in a short time and he would 
soon die of one of the various diseases from which we have to 
suffer. 

You will therefore see that disease is a physical house-clean¬ 
ing. This refers largely to acute diseases, as I have already 
shown, though chronic diseases to a large extent perform a sim¬ 
ilar office. This is illustrated very accurately in a chronic run¬ 
ning sore which refuses to heal. The pus poisons that are elimi¬ 
nated in this sore cannot be thrown out by the ordinary organs 
that are supposed to perform this duty, and they therefore seek 
this particular sore for outlet. As long as the body is encumber¬ 
ed with these poisons, this running sore will remain, but, as has 
been proven in hundreds of cases, by simply changing the habits 
of life, by purifying the body with a view of eliminating these 
poisons from the blood, the pus that appears at this point of 
the body gradually decreases and finally the sore heals entirely. 

You have a fever, for instance. There again is an accelerated 
pulse, a very high temperature, every organ of the body is ac¬ 
celerated to its greatest degree of activity for the purpose 
of throwing out poisons which if allowed to remain in 
the body would in many cases cause death. The fever, 
therefore, comes as a means of saving your life, and death 
would undoubtedly ensue because of the accumulation of 
poisons if it were not for the appearance of these fever symp¬ 
toms. Some outlet must be found for the poisons, and disease 
is the outlet. When attacked by a fever, even a layman should 
realize that his body is harboring a vast amount of impurities 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


73 


or poisons. They must be eliminated in some way, and the 
disease is Nature’s endeavor to thoroughly effeet this purpose. 

By all means get rid of the idea that disease is a mystery, a 
something to be deadly afraid of, a power that, like the light¬ 
ning, may strike anywhere, everywhere, in the most unlikely 
place, without warning or reason. It is nothing of the kind. It 
comes as a friend, it gives timely warning to help you escape 
from destruction or death, hence its warnings should be under¬ 
stood, heeded and obeyed. 

The sooner we comprehend the fact that disease is brought 
upon us by our own actions the better it will be for us. Disease 
is the result of our own misunderstanding of the great health 
laws. Disease is impure blood. You may ask how we are to 
trace the various diseases to impure blood. Let us take apo¬ 
plexy, for instance. How would impure blood cause the symp¬ 
toms connected with this complaint? Some say it is produced by 
unusual pressure of blood on the brain. How will impure blood 
produce such a manifestation? Unquestionably the pressure is 
first of all brought about through the existence of impure blood, 
and the really serious symptom of the disease, the breaking of a 
bloodvessel, has been made possible because of the weakened tis¬ 
sue which naturally results from defective elements furnished 
by the blood. The tissues are too weak to hold the blood pres¬ 
sure. You therefore cannot have apoplexy even unless your 
blood is impure, unless it fails to contain those elements needed 
to build the proper tissue. 

The blood is the life. It makes your body, it makes every part 
of your body. There is nothing within the body but what has 
been placed there by the blood. For instance, you have a mani¬ 
festation of some disease. One or more of your organs are sore, 
inflamed. What is the cause? This inflammation must have been 
brought there by the blood, except in such cases as already 
mentioned. It could not be brought there in any other 
manner, and yet when such symptoms appear you often con¬ 
sult a surgeon. He may find the organ slightly misplaced and 
diseased, and he will frequently advise you to cut it out. Now, 
how are you going to eliminate disease by simply cutting out 




74 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the organ in which the disease has manifested itself? Disease 
is really not in the organ itself, it is simply a sign of disease. 
The disease, I repeat, is in the blood; therefore, the proper way 
of treating a diseased organ is not to cut it out. The proper way 
is to remove the impurities from the blood, to make this vital 
fluid so virile, so full of health and strength that the poisons will 
be carried away and recovery will then be complete and definite. 
In the majority of operative cases, the disease for which the 
knife has been used can be cured quickly simply by purifica¬ 
tion of the blood. The poison, the inflammation and soreness 
are caused by impurities in the blood. There may have been 
local conditions that would help to produce the inflammation, 
but if the blood contains proper healing elements, the disease 
could not possibly become chronic, for the blood would then 
slowly but surely heal the affected part. 

The reader should now be fully persuaded to accept the 
statement of our assurance that most disease is preventable . 
There is no physician of any school who will not agree to the 
proposition that if the body be healthy it has the power to re¬ 
sist the aggressions of any kind of disease. Even though one 
accept the germ theory to its fullest extent, we have shown that 
disease germs cannot grow and thrive in a healthy organism. 
No matter what contagion is, or how it works, it has no power 
over a healthy body. In other words, disease either comes and 
is totally ignored by the healthy person, or if it succeeds in mak¬ 
ing an entrance it is so quickly and so unceremoniously kicked 
out that its presence has had scarcely any opportunity to make 
itself felt. So we believe in fostering two distinct attitudes of 
mind towards disease: first, that you have no need to fear it, 
and second, that if it takes hold of you, it only requires courage, 
and a quick, sharp fight to eradicate it. The first proposition, 
fearlessness, we have already briefly discussed. Let us give a 
few moments to the second. The fighting spirit is good, when 
properly understood and controlled. It is the power of initia¬ 
tive set in motion. It is the fighting spirit against things as 
they are which makes progress possible, stimulates improve¬ 
ment, encourages invention and causes enlightenment and civil- 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


75 


ization. It is the fighting spirit that prevents tyranny, compels 
graft to loose its hold, and that drives greed, lust, and all other 
evils to get under cover. The fighting spirit means strength in 
training, watchfulness, caution, courage and confidence. Let 
every man and woman be imbued with this spirit, and with 
knowledge to accompany it, the world would see disease almost 
banished in two or three generations. For every fighter knows 
he must be kept in training. In that one idea, we have proof 
that disease can be prevented. It has no power if one is willing 
to keep himself in training . And what does training mean— 
even what some might term the lower kind of training that the 
prize fighter demands? Simply that they live naturally, bathe 
properly, breathe pure air, live in the open as much as possible, 
exercise the muscles thoroughly and keep all the functions to 
their healthy performance by doing nothing to render them ab¬ 
normal in exercise. 

Now let a man or woman of intelligence determine to get 
into training to fight disease. How long is it going to be before 
such a one becomes absolutely sure of that method that keeps 
out disease? Experience has demonstrated that in a compara¬ 
tively short space of time reasonably perfect health is estab¬ 
lished and may be maintained from that hour to the time when 
the body, slowly dissolving itself, allows death to come easily, 
painlessly and without fear or terror. 

There is a vast difference, however, between our theory of 
the preventability of disease, owing to perfect health and the 
theory—guesswork—of the physiological chemists who claim to 
have discovered how to render us immune from disease by 
means of antitoxins. While this matter will be discussed else¬ 
where, I wish to make reference to it here, for I believe that 
no person can he regarded as tridy and perfectly healthy who 
is not absolutely immune from any and all disease , except, of 
course, those caused by accident. These chemists assert that 
they have discovered an antitoxin or serum which absolutely 
destroys diphtheria. 

Pasteur claimed to have discovered a serum for the cure and 
prevention of hydrophobia; Koch for consumption, and so on. 




76 MA CFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


In fact, for a time the medical press was flooded with asser¬ 
tions that now, at last, by means of these antitoxins all in¬ 
fectious diseases could be overcome and immunity secured. And 
there loomed before the American and other civilized peoples 
a menace more terrible than that of vaccination, viz., that we 
should have to submit to compulsory injection of a serum for 
diphtheria, one for scarlet fever, another for yellow fever, 
typhus, typhoid, hydrophobia, glanders and a dozen other 
dread diseases which human flesh is subject to. What 
a frightful thing to contemplate! Yet, if the theory of compul¬ 
sory vaccination be a correct one, how much more ought it to 
apply to the antitoxins which we should be assured would give 
us absolute immunity from these dread diseases. 

In the middle of the year 1909 I wrote an editorial in 
Physical Culture which, in the main, is herewith reproduced, 
as suggestively covering this ground of immunity, and the dif¬ 
ference between our methods and those of the chemical physi¬ 
ologists. 

What would it be worth to the average individual to feel, 
at all times, immune from disease of every character? The value 
of this assurance could not be adequate^ measured, and yet 
this immunity could be secured and retained on to the very end 
of life. The fear of disease is universal. To most people it is a 
grim spectre. It assumes fearful aspects. 

I am satisfied that almost any broad-minded individual can 
be freed entirely from the fear of these gruesome possibilities. 
Not only can one be freed mentally from the fear, but one can 
develop and maintain such a high degree of vital strength that 
disease can never secure a hold upon the body. I realize that 
to many this may seem to be a greatly exaggerated statement, 
but to those who have lived in accordance with the methods of 
Physcultopathy, and have indulged in a degree of reasoning on 
the subject in their own behalf, the conclusions advanced are 
facts, and are truthful in every respect. 

Disease cannot attack a perfectly healthy body. Disease 
germs can never secure a foothold in healthy tissue. The entire 
medical world is continually searching for some means of ren- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


77 


dering the body immune to disease. They are delving deeply in¬ 
to apparently impenetrable mysteries in their endeavors to 
solve this important problem. Their investigations, however, 
have been more or less confined to the study of disease itself 
and the symptoms and detailed characteristics associated with 
it. For instance, medical scientists have discovered what are 
commonly termed germs or microbes in the pus or other mat¬ 
ter discharged from the inflamed surfaces of the diseased tis¬ 
sues, that are the results of various complaints. Great impor¬ 
tance has been attached to the discovery of these germs, and 
the conclusion has been reached that in all cases these particular 
minute organisms are the cause of the disease with which they 
have been associated. 

These deductions have been accepted as the result of ex¬ 
perimentation. One experiment, for instance, has been to in¬ 
ject the germs of a definite disease into the circulation of a 
healthy animal. These germs usually cause the disease with 
which they have been associated. Even this experimentation, 
however, does not necessarily prove that the germ is in all 
cases the cause of the disease, for if these same germs were 
placed in contact with the mucous membrane which is said 
to be the seat of infection, they will produce the disease for 
which they are considered responsible only in those cases where 
the vital resistance has been lowered, or where the mucous 
membrane provides fertile soil for them—in fact, in those cases 
where poisons or impurities have accumulated to such an ex¬ 
tent in the body that they are actively seeking a means of out¬ 
let. Then such germs may be able to produce the disease 
with which they have been identified. 

Practically every advanced student of medicine is now 
prepared to admit that disease germs are innocuous or harm¬ 
less to those who possess what might be termed a high degree 
of vital resistance. Such persons are classed as immune, and 
it has always been an unsolvable riddle to me why the germ¬ 
seeking scientists do not turn their attention to the study of 
the how and why of this immunity. They are seeking a method 
of insuring immunity against disease. Why do they devote 




78 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


so much time to the study of the minute details of disease 
itself, instead of learning something of the nature of the forces 
within the body which can render it practically immune from 
all disease? 

Almost every physician will tell you that the severity of 
the attack of any acute disease will depend upon your vital 
resistance; in other words, upon how much functional strength 
or general bodily vigor you may possess. For instance, in a 
circular distributed by the Indiana State Board of Health 
we find the following: 

“Diphtheria may be so mild as to pass as a ‘simple cold.’ 
We know this to be true because microscopical examination of 
children’s throats have again and again discovered the germs 
to be present when the diagnosis was ‘a little cold,’ or ‘a 
mild tonsilitis.’ 

“Diphtheria germs are frequently found in the throats and 
noses of children when no complaint is made, when there is 
no fever, and when no sign of illness can be discovered. Why 
all the symptoms of diphtheria do not appear under such cir¬ 
cumstances may be due to the child’s resistance (good health), 
or because the germs themselves are weak. It is found that 
diphtheria germs from the throat of apparently well persons, 
when cultivated, produce a poison which will kill guinea pigs 
and rabbits. It is further found that if ‘weak germs’ are 
transferred from one child to another they frequently grow 
strong and produce unmistakable diphtheria. Before this dis¬ 
covery was made the doctors thought it was necessary for 
spots or a membrane to appear on the tonsils and the walls 
of the throat before the case could be diphtheria. Only not- 
up-to-date physicians think so now. Very frequently the mis¬ 
take is made of diagnosing a case as tonsilitis when it is 
diphtheria. The fact is, hundreds of cases of diphtheria are 
called sore throat, tonsilitis, or something else, and all such 
wrongly diagnosed cases may, and frequently do, spread diph¬ 
theria. This is how it happens that people frequently say, ‘I 
can’t see where my child caught diphtheria, for there have not 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


79 


been any cases around here,’ while many undiscovered cases 
were on the streets or in school all the time.” 

Remember these statements are made by a specialist, who 
emphatically believes in the germ theory of disease. “Diph¬ 
theria may be so mild as to pass as a simple cold.” There must 
be some definite reason for the mildness of such an attack, 
and would it not be easy for an advanced student of the 
healing art to discover this “reason why”? And, “It is found 
that diphtheria germs from the throat of an apparently well 
person, when cultivated, produce a poison which will kill 
guinea pigs and rabbits.” Now, if germs are in all cases the 
cause of disease, how could one remain well with diphtheria 
germs in his throat? In fact, do not the statements of this 
authority prove absolutely beyond all possible controversy that 
disease, even in accordance with his own theories, is made pos¬ 
sible, not by the so-called germ, but by the condition of the 
body itself? In other words, when the vitality of the body is 
lowered, which usually means that it is overloaded with poisons 
or impurities, which frequently assume the form of mucus or 
pus seeking an outlet from the inflamed membrane, then disease 
is easily acquired, for under such circumstances the body 
actually needs disease or some means of cleansing it of accumu¬ 
lated poisons. Such a disease may assume the form of diph¬ 
theria, scarlet or typhoid fever, or any one of a thousand other 
symptoms for which the medical profession have high-sounding, 
and often unpronounceable names. Let us quote further from 
the same authority: 

“Diphtheria germs have been frequently found in the 
throats of persons who were quite well and who were not 
afterward brought down with the disease. Some people seem 
not to be susceptible to diphtheria, and the germs, although 
present, do not grow and cause the disease. A high authority 
tells of a nurse who carried diphtheria germs in her throat 
for a long time and introduced the disease into five families. 
This fact explains in a degree how it is possible for diphtheria 
to appear when there seems to have been no exposure, and it 
also teaches us to be very sure that recently recovered patients 

Vol 1—7 




80 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


are free from diphtheria germs before they are allowed to go 
out.” 

You will note the statement: “Some people seem not to be 
susceptible to diphtheria.” If the germs are found in the throats 
of persons who are not afterward brought down with .the dis¬ 
ease, and if it be true that the germs are in all cases the cause 
of the disease, how can anyone come in contact with them with¬ 
out suffering from the complaint? The advocates of the germ 
theory themselves thus prove in a very forcible manner that 
the proper way to make oneself immune from disease is to 
maintain the vitality at high-water mark. In other words, the 
dangers on which advocates of the germ theory of disease lay 
stress offer not the slightest menace to an individual who will 
so guide his habits of life as to maintain a superior degree of 
health at all times. Our contention, therefore, that disease is, 
after all, not a thing to fear, but that it is actually bodily “house 
cleaning,” and cannot come to you unless there is need 
for eliminating impurities that have accumulated in your 
system, is to a certain extent upheld by the medical men 
themselves. 

The medical scientists should turn their investigations to 
another channel. They should learn something of the powers of 
resistance possessed by the body, they should learn why health 
itself practically makes one immune from all diseases, and in¬ 
stead of going deeper and deeper into the unfathomable depths 
of the germ mysteries, they should begin to learn how to teacli 
rational methods of building the vitality needed to insure free¬ 
dom from all disease. 

Disease is not an enemy! It is a friend! It comes as a 
means of bringing relief. It is an effort on the part of the 
body to right a wrong. It shows that the body is struggling 
for life and health, and on many occasions, if it were not for 
the diseases that come as a means of ridding the body of the 
vile accumulations of poisons, death would unquestionably en¬ 
sue. Therefore, disease in many cases actually saves life. To 
be sure, if there is but a small amount of foreign material 
in the circulation and tissues of the body, the attack of the 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


81 


disease will be slight in character, though the authorities we 
have quoted refer to this physical characteristic as “resistance 
or good health.” 

All this reasoning brings us back to the question: “What 
is the cause of disease?” The medical scientist takes the disease 
itself, with all its minute symptoms, and attempts to solve the 
problem then and there, but it is far back of this. The cause 
of an acute disease, for instance, may have begun years before 
the body is finally attacked. 

Medical men are slowly returning to Nature. They are 
beginning to abandon the use of drugs; they are realizing that 
the body itself must be depended upon to right physical wrongs, 
that drugs and poisons are useless. And the day is not far dis¬ 
tant when they will all have to fall in line and commend in 
every detail the conclusions advanced by that famous physician, 
Professor William Osier, now of Oxford University, Eng¬ 
land, who has endorsed practically every rule of living incul¬ 
cated by Physcultopath}\ 

Professor Osier, in a lecture before the Pathological So¬ 
ciety in Philadelphia, stated that “he is the best physician who 
knows the worthlessness of the most medicine.” He stated there 
were four drugs of inestimable value in the practice of medicine, 
and when he said he would decline to name them a roar of 
laughter went up from more than two hundred physicians, who 
were his auditors. 

Dr. Osier said that the prevention of disease has now be¬ 
come quite as important as a cure. “Who would have thought 
only ten years ago,” he asked, “that malaria and yellow fever 
could be prevented and their cure made unnecessary? The 
discovery of the germ of tuberculosis had brought no cure for 
that dread disease, by drugs, but it had brought an ameliora¬ 
tion, and sometimes cure, by fresh air and diet.” 

Years ago I came to the conclusions of Professor Osier 
and with all the fervor and power at my command have been 
presenting them to the people. I again affirm that the best 
way to render people immune from disease is, not to drug 
them, not to dose them with antitoxins, but to teach and in- 




82 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


duce them to live normal and healthful lives, lives of sim¬ 
plicity and naturalness. 

Thus believing, we come to our next proposition, viz., that 
most manifestations of disease are curable . To me, with my 
experience of over a quarter of a century, this has become al¬ 
most an axiom. There are cases where the vital forces are so 
depleted, and the courage and fighting spirit of the patient so 
lowered, that death ensues. But, taken early enough and with 
intelligence, there is literally no disease under the sun that 
ought not to succumb to man’s power. It may require “eternal 
vigilance,” but surely if that is the price we are willing to 
pay for liberty, we should be willing to pay the same price for 
health. And it does not require drugs, special nostrums, great 
learning or superior intelligence. All it requires is common 
sense, persistence, energy, belief in the body that it is doing the 
best it can for itself, and that if helped, not hindered, in its 
efforts, it will bring itself into a healthful condition . I have 
thousands of letters from all parts of the world from persons 
who have suffered from nearly every disease known to man 
and who have said in effect: 

“I have suffered from this and that disease, and I have tried 
every method know to medical science and have failed to secure 
results, and after trying your simple suggestions I have been 
able to secure that health and strength that has been denied 
me for many years.” 

How then can we be any other than filled with confidence 
that our position is a secure one and our methods unassailable ? 
They have been tried over and over again, thousands of times; 
they have brought results where every known means advocated 
by the medical fraternity had failed; they are simple; they 
bring certain results in practically every instance, so that it be¬ 
comes a mere matter of believing what you see with your own 
eyes. 

In a lecture delivered in 1909 in one of our Sanatorium^ 
I made the following personal statements, which are worth 
reproducing here: 

“Nearly twenty years have elapsed since I first had oc- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


83 


casion to try out these fundamental principles. At the time 
to which I am about to refer I was considerable of an athlete; 
I was indulging in all sorts of athletic contests, and about this 
time I contracted a cold. I tried to cure it by increasing my 
exercise. I ran a number of miles and worked in the gym¬ 
nasium to induce profuse perspiration. I thought I could 
eliminate the cold in this manner, but it was apparently too 
deep seated. I gradually grew worse, and I soon noted various 
symptoms of pneumonia, the knife-like pain in chest, etc., etc. 
The problem as to the means of cure finally became acute. 
Though I had never tried fasting before, I concluded to stop 
eating. I decided that the impurities were being fed by the 
food that I put into my stomach. In two days I noticed a dif¬ 
ference, a slight change for the better, and I was practically 
cured in four or five days. 

“Now suppose I had gone to a medical practitioner and de¬ 
scribed my symptoms, what would have been the result? He 
would have said, ‘You go to bed at once! Why, you are seri¬ 
ously sick!’ I would have followed his advice, I would have 
been housed up in a room with closed windows for fear of 
a draft, I might have been fed on milk and whiskey and a 
lot of other ‘stuff,’ and if I had followed methods of that kind, 
I would not be here. I am positive of this conclusion because 
man}^ years ago I had all the symptoms of incipient consump¬ 
tion, and after building the vigorous health that I now enjoy, 
I became an enthusiast, a crank, as many might call me. When 
I first began to search for a cure, I tried everything, all kinds 
of drugs and medicines. I grew worse, slowly but surely, 
and as a last resort became interested in exercise, nothing but 
exercise, and as I was simply dying for the need of some 
activity of this kind, I recovered. I built myself into a strong 
man, and the more strength I acquired, the more enthusiastic 
I grew, the more thoroughly I became convinced that drugs 
were needless, that the pretension as to their being able to 
cure disease was a serious error and of great danger and injury 
to humanity. You may say that I am prejudiced, and per¬ 
haps I am; but if you had been compelled, as I have been, day 




84 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


after day for many years, to read letters from thousands of 
victims of drugs, you might be prejudiced against the drug¬ 
ging methods. I believe every man and every woman is en¬ 
titled to superb health. If you have enough vitality to live, 
you have enough strength to be healthy. Life, if it is worth liv¬ 
ing at all, is worth living in its highest, noblest sense. If you 
cannot be a man or a woman in every way, you might just 
as well get ‘off the earth.’ Take advantage of every oppor¬ 
tunity to develop your body, make yourself strong and capable. 
Do not let those around you dictate to you. 

“Do your own thinking! Come to your own conclusions! 
Use your own reason, and I am assured that you will forever 
abandon the old, complex and harmful methods of the past, 
and follow the simple and helpful methods we advocate. For 
in the one there lie misery, wretchedness, disease and death, 
in the other joy, happiness, health and life.” 

If, then, what we have advanced be true, ought we not to 
lose our great dread of disease? And it is one of the missions 
of this cyclopedia. to help bring about this desired end. As 
was once stated in one of my public lectures to invalids: 

“I would like to transmit to you the supreme confidence 
that comes to me when I happen to be attacked by a disease 
of any kind. I would like everyone to be able to help himself 
under such circumstances. I would like to see each one avoid 
that feeling of fear that often ensues when there is a slight pain 
or any other symptom that indicates disease. One special rea¬ 
son for the pressing need of this mental confidence is the 
destructive power possessed by fear itself. When you become 
possessed of a fear of disease, it has the best of you in the be¬ 
ginning. In fact, fear, the product of ignorance, is a disease 
in itself. Therefore, if you can eliminate fear when you are 
attacked by a complaint of any kind, if you can simply say to 
yourself: ‘Well, I know the nature of this complaint, it can¬ 
not scare me, I know that it is simply a symptom, which is 
the result of natural causes and it will finally disappear.’ If you 
can make such a statement to yourself when attacked by a 
complaint; in other words, if you can eliminate fear, then you 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


85 


will do a great deal in the beginning towards curing your 
disease. 

“Disease is functional disturbance. In some cases you might 
say it is lowered vitality or lessened vital resistance. There is 
something wrong with the functional organism. Disease has not 
come upon you because you have been attacked by a germ 
of some kind, it has not come because you have breathed some 
extraordinary microbe, it has appeared because you are ready 
for it, in most cases because you have deserved it as a penalty 
for violating Nature’s health laws. It has nevertheless come 
upon you as a friend. It is not an enemy. I would like especial¬ 
ly to emphasize that disease is not an enemy. It does not come 
upon you like a thief in the night; it does not come to injure 
you. It comes to benefit you. Disease is, therefore, not a bad 
thing; it is a good thing. This may seem an unusual state¬ 
ment, and yet it is truth. I do not believe that disease is sent 
upon us for the purpose of making us suffer. Disease is useful. 
It serves a beneficent purpose. It really comes in most cases 
to clean our bodily house.” 

After reading these ideas for the first time in the Physical 
Culture Magazine, one of our good English friends wrote a let¬ 
ter of criticism in which he said: “I think disease should right¬ 
ly be considered an enemy. I quite agree with you that disease 
only attacks those that are weak and of depleted vitality, but 
does that make disease a blessing? This world is a world of 
eternal fighting—only the fittest survive—but that surely does 
not make the destroyer of the weak their friend. There are 
diseases, as you admit, which are contagious. Perhaps all 
diseases are contagious, but they only develop where 
they find favorable soil. Disease does not exist in 
the blood, but the food for it does. There are two factors 
that determine the contraction of disease—the state of develop¬ 
ment and vigor of the attacking microbes and the degree of re¬ 
sistance of the organism they attack. The issue is this: That al¬ 
though we must try and develop resistance of our bodies and 
minds against attacking microbes by building up vitality, bodily 
and mental vigor, we must none the less directly combat these 




SG 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


microbes by sanitation and cleanliness. We must not'present 
to them a passive but an active resistance.” 

In response to this I made, in part, the following reply: 

“Under no circumstances do we believe that disease is a con¬ 
dition to be desired. Circumstances sometimes compel one 
to choose between what might be termed two evils. For in¬ 
stance, if one had opportunity to choose between death and 
disease, the probabilities are one would take disease, and that 
really gives you a clear impression of what we meant when 
we stated disease was not an enemy, but a friend; not a curse, 
but a blessing. We meant to convey the idea that disease is 
friendly, beneficent, when it was actually needed by the sys¬ 
tem to cleanse the organism of impurities—to eliminate the 
poisonous or fetid matter that might be clogging functional 
activity. It is not difficult to realize that under such circum¬ 
stances disease is friendly, and one might further state that 
disease never attacks one under any other circumstances. You 
cannot be attacked by disease if the body is in perfect health. 
Disease cannot enter your organism unless there is need for it. 
Therefore, when disease comes, you have deserved it; you are 
requiring the particular symptoms manifested by the disease at 
that particular time for very important reasons. 

“Our friend says that disease does not exist in the blood, but 
food for it does. If food for disease exists in the blood then why 
can we not reasonably state that disease itself exists in the 
blood? If foreign or poisonous matter which is the cause of 
various symptoms of disease exists in the blood, then it is the 
blood which is out of order and it might be termed the direct 
cause of disease. If these impurities or poisons can be thrown 
out of the blood there would be no reason or cause for disease, 
and naturally disease would not appear. 

“He also says there are two factors to determine the con¬ 
traction of disease—the vigor of the attacking microbes and the 
vital resistance of the organism. Here is where he makes a very 
serious blunder, for the vigor of the attacking microbes is 
determined entirely by the fertility of the soil with which they 
come in contact. In other words, if the microbes, no matter 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


87 


how inactive or undeveloped they might be, should come in con¬ 
tact with tissues that are loaded with impurities and poisons, 
which are food for microbes, they would quickly become vigor¬ 
ous and multiply by the millions. It should be remembered 
that microbes are nothing more or less than minute scavengers 
and their purpose is beneficent. If the particular conditions 
which are essential for their existence are found they will 
thrive and multiply. If the particular poisons with which they 
are associated are present they will grow strong, but if the 
body is healthy and vigorous, if the organism is free from 
disease, the blood free from poisons, the microbes, regardless of 
their character, are powerless. They are not needed and they 
waste away and die when they come in contact with healthy 
tissue. 

“We should, of course, try to develop the resistance of our 
bodies to the highest degree and by every means within our 
power, through sanitation and cleanliness, and the various vital 
building methods should be adopted with that particular pur¬ 
pose in view, but we should at the same time understand clear¬ 
ly and definitely the nature and cause of disease. We should 
understand that the body under any and all circumstances is 
working for its own good; that disease, if it does come, is the 
best means that the body can adopt at that particular time, and 
under the existing circumstances, to combat the unfavorable 
conditions that must then and there be resisted. There may 
be diseases that are contagious, but we think the most experi¬ 
enced bacteriologists will admit that no disease is contagious to 
perfectly healthy tissues; that a man enjoying perfect health 
can eat disease germs by the millions and they will not have the 
slightest effect upon him—but if the circumstances are other¬ 
wise, if there are poisons in the tissues and the body is not prop¬ 
erly cleansed of impurities, disease can of course secure a foot¬ 
hold, and the germs under such circumstances might be capable 
of creating the disease with which they are allied. 
********** * * 

“We want to entirely eliminate the idea of mystery with 
which disease is almost universally regarded. We want to make 




88 


MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


our friends understand that the functional processes of the body 
are at all times striving with might and main to bring about 
the very best results. When you build strength, when you 
add to your vital power, you are diminishing the possibility 
of disease. But if you neglect the body, if the blood is charged 
with foul poisons of all kinds, these poisons continue to accu¬ 
mulate, and there comes a time when they taint the blood 
stream, and the tissues throughout the body are everywhere 
clogging the functional activity, and then the resisting powers 
of the body call a halt. They call for some relief; they send 
out a message for help and help comes in the form of disease. 
This disease as a rule takes away the appetite; it is preceded 
by various symptoms containing inflammation, soreness, and 
is accompanied or followed in nearly all instances with the 
elimination of a vast quantity of vile poisonous material, which 
is really and truly the actual cause of the disease, and the 
elimination of these poisons represents its true object. 

“Let us not make any mistake. Disease is not an enemy; 
it is not unfriendly; it only comes when it is pitifully needed. 
Sometimes it actually saves life and it is a choice between 
that and the grave. There is no need of seeking disease; one 
should avoid disease, but it should be avoided by maintaining 
that degree of health which does not allow of the accumula¬ 
tion in the body of those poisons which are the actual causes 
of the various symptoms associated with disease.” 

Most people totally ignore the relative questions of health 
and disease, until some form of disease takes possession of 
them. I use this term “takes possession” advisedly, not that 
disease comes in that way, but because nearly every sufferer 
from disease feels he is “taken possession of.” Usually he calls 
in the services of a reputed expert in whose mastery of medical 
lore he feels compelled to repose confidence and whose orders 
he generally follows with a blind faith that is as pathetic as it 
would be laughable were its consequences not so fraught with 
danger, and, oftentimes, death. 

Most of us depend entirely too much upon the judgment 
of others, in matters of disease, and if we could only impress 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


89 


all those who read with the terrible necessity of doing some 
of their own thinking on important subjects, the effort expend¬ 
ed will not be unrewarded. I earnestly desire to encourage 
the habit of investigation in every one. In the study of healing, 
as well as every phase of human life, use your own judgment. 
When doctors disagree, it is time for you to do some think¬ 
ing on your own account. He who depends entirely upon 
what can he accomplished through drugging, when his health 
is in need of urgent attention is walking blindly towards im¬ 
pending disaster. He is apt to fall over the edge of a preci¬ 
pice, and into the great beyond at any moment. One might 
say he is blindly feeling his way through life. He is unable 
to look ahead, and he knows not what is before him. He is 
groping in the darkness of a hidden mystery, though in many 
cases his fears are alleviated to an astonishing extent by some¬ 
times absurd and ridiculous advice that guides his physical 
welfare. 

I have no set and immovable theories to defend, upon 
which I invariably depend. I have had a large personal 
experience in healing disease, and in teaching others to 
heal their own diseases. I have carefully and thoroughly 
studied the theories and principles of the various schools of 
physicians and common sense has urged me to reject them. 
I have openly and frankly said so, and have also openly 
explained why, and then, with equal candor, frankness and 
sincerity, gone on to explain why we should revert to simpler 
methods of obtaining health, driving out disease, and main¬ 
taining health. 

Though I have studied the subjects for over a quarter 
of a century I am still studying and expect to continue to 
do so as long as I have the capacity for reasoning. As long 
as you maintain an open mind, you will progress and will be 
able to deduce clear, rational and really valuable conclusions. 
My advice is: Take no conclusions for granted. Learn all 
you can from the knowledge and conclusions that are pre¬ 
sented to you by books and by those looked upon as authori¬ 
ties; all knowledge is of value. Test the ideas thus acquired. 




90 


MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Do not accept them as indisputable facts. For instance, if you 
read a book that appeals to you, do not accept the statements 
made in it until, through your own individual efforts, you have 
been able to prove the truth of its conclusions. The question¬ 
ing habit is a splendid one to cultivate. Take nothing for 
granted until you have proven it to your own satisfaction. 

It is from this open standpoint of mind that we shall dis¬ 
cuss the question and seek to show, in this chapter and succeed¬ 
ing ones, the causes of disease and how easily preventable many 
of them are and how that simple and natural methods will 
generally, in the other cases, restore the sufferer to health, or 
at least mitigate his sufferings. 

All disease may be summed up as caused by a deviation 
from the natural and normal course of life. What is the 
natural and normal course of life? To this question there are 
almost as many answers as there are inquirers. There can be 
no denying that in many of its aspects civilization is a series of 
deviations from nature. For instance, in a state of nature we 
should be born, live, work and die out of doors; we should 
wear practically no clothes except when cold compelled; we 
should eat food just as it was found prepared for us by nature; 
we should use neither artificial light nor heat; we should walk, 
ride perhaps on the back of animals or on vessels capable of 
sustaining our weight in the water; we might even attempt, 
like Sinbad the Sailor, to take flight on the back cf the roc; 
but electric cars, automobiling, railroads or flying machines and 
all other paraphernalia of our advanced civilization would re¬ 
pel us as being unnatural and therefore injurious. 

Yet we cannot ignore the facts of civilization. We do live 
in houses, and wear clothes, and use fire to cook our food and 
a thousand and one other things that separate us from a state of 
nature. Are we then to imply that civilization is a foe to 
health; that it is the creator and breeder of disease, and that 
the men and women who seek to live healthily must abandon 
civilization and revert to a natural condition? 

While there is much of truth implied in these questionings, 
it is both foolish and impossible to expect men and women of 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


91 


today to abandon civilization and revert to what would gen¬ 
erally be deemed a condition of primitive savagery. Hence 
the problem is to weigh carefully the advantages and disad¬ 
vantages of civilization; to use the advantages as much as 
possible; to avoid the disadvantages with rigorous care, and at 
the same time to take advantage of all natural methods which 
will aid us in building up strong and healthy bodies, capable 
of repelling disease, or, where disease exists, find out the best 
methods for its elimination. 

The following will be found to embrace all the known 
causes of disease: 1. Heredity: 2. Mental Influence; 3. Con¬ 
tagion; 4. Improper Diet; 5. Overstrain or Understrain; 6. 
Physical Causes; 7. Mechanical Causes; 8. Chemical 
Causes. 

Before proceeding to a detailed explanation of these causes 
I would call particular attention to the fact that they are 
divisible into two great classes, viz., those that happen to us 
without our knowledge or volition, and those that we bring 
upon ourselves. We might therefore term these two great 
divisions, the unavoidable causes and the avoidable causes . In 
discussing the following lists, therefore, it will be observed that 
we have devoted but little time to the unavoidable causes—for 
reasons which will be self-apparent—and have enlarged con¬ 
siderably and with all the emphasis at our command upon those 
causes and diseases that are avoidable or preventable. 

1. Heredity.— Heredity has always been regarded as a 
predisposing cause to certain diseases. But the more advanced 
scientists are inclined to view with disfavor many of the ideas 
that have been so strenuously held in years gone by. Luther 
Burbank claims that heredity is but “the sum of our past en¬ 
vironments.” Tyson, one of the most eminent professors in 
America on “The Practice of Medicine,” however, asserts that 
“There is reason to believe that the children of alcoholics are 
not only more susceptible to the degenerative effects of alcohol, 
but also to other disease such as gout, rheumatism, syphilis, and 
diseases of the nervous system. Among the latter may be men- 




92 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


tioned especially epilepsy and melancholia, dementia and in¬ 
sanity.” 

It is well known that infants are bom suffering from 
syphilitic and scrofulous diseases. “At the present time the 
most common cause of blindness among civilized peoples, is the 
purulent, or gonorrheal, conjunctivitis of the newborn.” 
—Beissig and Jellijfe. Congenital dislocation of the hip-joint 
is a hereditary disease, and many other ailments, of greater 
or lesser seriousness, are known to exist in the newborn. 

2. Mental Influences. —No intelligent person can 
•question the wonderful influence the mind has over the body 
in the cause of disease. Many people are perpetually sick 
because they perpetually worry. Violent frights have caused 
convulsions, paralysis, insanity and even death. Mental dis¬ 
tress is often said to cause insanity in predisposed individuals. 
In a later chapter we shall discuss the power of the mind in 
the healing of disease. 

Especially upon the young would I impress the import¬ 
ance of preserving the right mental influences. Fear is a con¬ 
stant predisposer to disease. There is an epidemic—yellow fe¬ 
ver, smallpox, cholera, etc.,—and in some subtle way, which our 
scientists have not yet explained, perfectly healthy people, 
yielding to fear, become subject to the disease. Parents and 
physicians too often have taught children fear—fear of this, 
fear of that, and of the other. We are afraid of wet feet, of 
draughts, of taking cold, of germs, of night air, of running 
up stairs, of childbirth and of a thousand and one things that 
there ought to be no fear of whatever. 

There is but one thing we should fear, and that is fear that 
we may be wrong, and even that a really healthy mind will 
never contemplate—for no really healthy person ever wishes 
to do wrong. Fear is a despot as cruel as it is cowardly, as 
mean as it is powerful. It takes every mean advantage and 
strikes one unawares and in the back. It never comes out in the 
open and in the light like a courageous opponent, but fights 
in the dark. It “suggests” certain evils, urges you to “think 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


93 


over” things, and is sure “you ought to be more careful.” It 
hints, whispers, nods, lurks, sneaks, skulks, slinks, prowls, mys¬ 
tifies, disguises. It lures its victims on by lulling their fears 
for a while and then suddenly reawakens and strengthens them 
by shouting “Boo!” at them unexpectedly. It sometimes ap¬ 
pears to grow like the genie out of the Oriental bottle, until 
its immense form reaches to the sky and shuts out the light of 
the sun; and again it hovers around like a black cloud as¬ 
suming all kinds of horrible shapes and fearsome forms. It has 
power to make you dream and thus with cowardly ruffianism 
strikes you while you are asleep, whispering in your ear of this 
danger and that, of this possible evil and that, until crazed with 
its direful suggestions, the victim’s brain reels and topples over 
into semi-insanity. 

Quit being afraid. Strangle this monster fear. Become 
men and women, fearless and unafraid. Face all there is, 
bravely, knowing that a foe well faced is half conquered. God 
and Nature mean well by you in every way. Trust that basic 
fact. Rely upon that. Strengthen your .heart and courage 
with that, and then as you walk through the years of life you 
will come fully to realize that difficulties and dangers disappear 
before the brave of heart. 

Anger is a cause of disease. Anger poisons the secretions. 
Who has not felt the mouth become dry, and then bitter, under 
the effect of anger? Nursing mothers have killed their babes 
under its influence, their milk becoming charged with anger¬ 
generated poisons. Long-continued anger produces a breaking 
down of muscular and nervous systems, often causes acute and. 
finally, chronic dyspepsia, insanity and death. 

Jealousy is a cause of disease. It unsettles the nervous 
and digestive system, disturbs the circulation of the blood, 
irritates the brain and is a most frequent cause of insanity. 

Prudery is one of the most serious causes of disease. Ac¬ 
cording to the Standard Dictionary, prudery is the “exhibi¬ 
tion of extreme propriety in conduct and mental attitude; an 
undue and sometimes insincere display of modesty and deli¬ 
cacy; primness; overparticularity.” This does not entirely ex- 




94 


MACFADDEN\S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


press it. It is important that you distinguish between true 
modesty and prudery. One may be ever so modest, and yet 
consider and discuss the subject of sex in every detail, in a 
pure-minded, wholesome manner. The term prudery, however, 
refers to excessive and affected modesty, and implies a degree 
of insincerity. Prudery involves hypocrisy, which is only 
another name for dishonesty and deceit. In fact, hypocrisy 
is a most contemptible form of lying. Prudery is dis¬ 
tinguished by its indisposition to accept and face the truth, 
or to tell the truth. Its representatives would have us 
believe that ignorance in regard to sex means innocence and 
virtue. Prudery simulates this innocence and virtue by a 
conspicuous silence, and it would if it could stifle the entire 
subject of sex by crying out “shame, shame” every time it was 
approached. In this way, not only boys and girls, but even men 
and women are left in ignorance of the sexual quicksands and 
pitfalls which they are bound to come across at some time of 
their lives when, as is manifest, they should be possessed of that 
knowledge by which they would have thorough understanding 
of the dangers in question. Ignorance is always dangerous. 
Philosophers have said that “ignorance is the only sin.” The 
more vitally important any subject is, the more dangerous it 
is to be kept in ignorance in regard to it. The great facts of 
life and sex are of the very first importance and those who 
would encourage ignorance about them are public enemies of 
the most dangerous type. The prude is invariably inclined to 
pruriency; indeed, it is difficult to conceive how one can be 
prudish who is not prurient. Moreover, the prude fails to realize 
that morality is a matter of behavior, and not an attribute of 
any special material thing or organ of the body. Because of 
the very common misconduct and perversion in sex matters, 
even on the part of the prudes themselves, all being due to 
ignorance, they have placed upon the reproductive function the 
stigma of impurity. They fail to understand that there can 
be no indecency attached to sex except by reason of the misuse 
they have made of it, and that the reproductive function in it¬ 
self is as natural and as pure a function in human beings 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


95 


as it is in flowers. Still and in view of his abnormal vileness, 
it is conceivable that the prurient prude would find something 
vulgar and degrading in the reproduction of plants. 

My experience is that all attempts to hide the facts of 
natural function, or to keep knowledge of it from the young, 
foster the very mental activity we are supposed to deaden 
by our silence. No young person, boy or girl, who is intelligent 
and observant, or who reads and studies, is going through life 
ignorant of sex function nowadays, and frank and open 
discussion and explanation is the only moral, right and sen¬ 
sible procedure. 

We have received thousands upon thousands of letters from 
young men and women who have gone down to perdition, wal¬ 
lowing in the wreck of sickness and ruin, simply because of this 
accursed prudery—because they did not have parents, guard¬ 
ians, or teachers who were clean, intelligent, and noble enough 
to tell them the truth in regard to matters of sex. 

Worry is another mental cause of disease. To be in a 
perpetual state of fret, of mental unrest, of undue solicitude, 
of disquiet* of anxious dread, of fearful anticipation, and of 
terrifying expectation—how can one not become diseased when 
given up to such mental condition? Mothers worry about their 
children when they are absent. How absolutely absurd! How 
foolish! How insane! Can the worry protect the child? If 
there is any truth in the idea that our mental conditions are 
transferable then the worry injures and jeopardizes him in¬ 
stead of protecting him. And certainly when the child has re¬ 
turned to the presence of his mother the expression of the worry 
would disturb him if he were as healthy as a Hercules, and as 
serene as the Sphinx. So that both “worrier” and “worried” 
are injured by worry. 

Husbands worry about their wives, and wives about their 
husbands, business men about their business, society women 
about their social functions, financiers about their investments, 
chemists about their experiments, students about their exam¬ 
inations—all futile, all wrong, all unnecessary, all provoca¬ 
tive of disease. 

Vol. 1—8 




MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


06 


Another prolific cause of disease is unhappy marriage. This 
may be a mental or a physical difficulty, or a combined one, 
but there can be no question but that disease is often the re¬ 
sult of improper or unhappy marital conditions. No man, no 
woman, can live continually in a state of irritation, discon¬ 
tent, unhappiness, regret, or anger without suffering, and this 
soon begets disease of mind or body. Nervous disorders, brain 
diseases, dyspepsia, sexual diseases all may spring from an un- 
happv marriage. 

Besides the suffering to the ill-mated couple, if there are 
children they are made subject to disease. Children born in 
unhappiness are almost sure to be prone to disease, and others 
are subject to the irritating influences that come from the 
quarrelings, the irritations, the sulkings or the heart-breakings 
that arise from these unhappy marital relationships. 

It may not seem scientific to those who regard “life” as 
subject merety to the laws of the scalpel and miscroscope, to 
make the statement, but we wish to assert that another great 
cause of disease, too often ignored by the scientist, is what the 
churches call “sin.” Sin is wrongdoing. It may be merely in 
thought and thus come under the head of mental influences, 
or it may be converted into act and then come under some 
other head. We do not intend to enter into any discussion as 
to the nature of sin, or its origin. The human mind is so or¬ 
ganized and trained that it generally recognizes the law of the 
“ten commandments,” and knows that violation of those is 
sin. Violation of law often produces remorse. Concealment is 
also necessary and remorse and concealment, anxiety lest one 
be discovered, and fear of consequences if discovered, are some 
of the strongest mental causes of disease associated with what 
is called sin. 

3. Contagion. —As I have shown elsewhere, the medical 
world believes thoroughly in the idea that many diseases are 
caused solely by contagion. We largely combat this idea, but 
at the same time we recognize that there are certain parasitic 
contagions which are the result of transferring living organ- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


97 


isms from one body to another, as ring-worm, the itch, the 
trichina from eating diseased pork, the tape-worm, etc. But 
the most important phase of the theory of contagion as held 
by the later schools of advanced scientists is that generally 
known as the “Germ Theory.” The microscopists tell us 
that there are three forms of disease germs in the blood. These 
are rods, spheres and spirals and they are divided into bacteria 
or bacillicocci and spiralla, as they assume one or the other 
of these three forms. They are all generally known as bac¬ 
teria or germs . And we are told that the germs of anthrax, 
of diphtheria, of tuberculosis, or influenza, leprosy and the 
plague are rod-shaped or bacilli, while those of erysipelas, of 
gonorrhea, of pneumonia and of trachoma are sphere-shaped 
or cocci, and the Asiatic cholera or relapsing fever are spirals 
or spiralla . This list, however, the scientists tell us, is merely 
suggestive and incomplete, as the work in this field is as yet in 
its early stages. 

While I have written strongly on the absurd fears im¬ 
planted into the hearts of people by the scientists in regard to 
“germs,” I would not have it thought that I do not recog¬ 
nize any danger from contagion. In such cases as itch, ring¬ 
worm, trichina and the like it is perfectly possible that the in¬ 
sects may be transferred from one body to another and this 
“transplanting” we call contagion. 

In regard to the “germs” of disease, there may be a similar 
transplanting, but experience demonstrates that to a healthy 
body there need be no fear, as the germs have no condition for 
growth. 

And the vaccine and antitoxin therapy methods which the 
scientists adduce from the “germ theory” are entirely repug¬ 
nant to our sense of right and health; hence we oppose them 
with unextinguishable vigor and earnestness. 

4. Improper Diet. —Disease may be caused by deficiency /j 
or by excess. Foods may be improperly balanced, too much I 
of one kind, too little of another. Upon the right solution of 
this question of diet largely depends the health of the race. 





08 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Improper dietetic habits are the cause of many serious 
diseases. The average individual knows little or nothing of 
diet, and when you discuss the value of knowledge of this char¬ 
acter, you will often hear remarks like the following: “My 
father lived to be eighty or ninety and he did not bother about 
these new-fangled ideas of health. He was rugged and 
healthy.” He may have been, but as a rule he had a great deal 
more vitality than his sons or his daughters. He may have 
been one of those pioneers who grew up on farms, who had to 
chop wood and grub up stumps the larger part of their early 
years. These vigorous exercises, long continued, connected 
with the simple diet that he was necessarily compelled to sub¬ 
sist on, were the means of building great vitality, and conse¬ 
quently, after he attained maturity, any ordinary deviations 
from a healthful diet would have little or no effect upon him. 
The digestive organisms of many individuals possess such an 
extraordinary degree of strength that they seem to be capable 
of getting nourishment from any kind of food, no matter how 
difficult it may be for the ordinary stomach to digest. 

In these days we are not called upon to live the vigorous 
and simple lives of our forefathers and naturally we do not 
have the vitality that many of them possessed. Then, too, 
we have been feeding on their vitality for generations. This 
conclusion is very easily proven by the experience of the aver¬ 
age country bred man who moves into the city to found a home. 
He brings with him all the vitality and strength that he has 
gained from outdoor country life; but notwithstanding the 
great vigor that he brings to the city, his family tree, as a rule, 
exhausts itself in from three to five generations. 

If the great cities were not fed by the life blood of the 
country districts, they would cease to exist. They would be¬ 
gin almost immediately to decrease in population and would 
soon be wiped out of existence entirely unless they learned 
the lesson of preserving the vitality of their people. The 
American people have been wasting their vitality generation 
after generation. We have been feeding largely for the last 
generation upon the vitality of the people who have come to 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


99 


us from foreign shores, and now we are beginning to realize 
that we must learn something of the Jaws of health if we are 
to fight disease, sickness and early death. We must learn how 
to feed ourselves. We know how to feed our horses. Scien¬ 
tific dietetics, so far as they are concerned with the feeding of 
hogs, chickens, dogs and various other live domestic property, 
have been thoroughly studied, but scientific dietetics for the 
human race are still in their infancy. 

While I freely confess there is such a thing as being too 
anxious about diet, there is also an ignorance, a carelessness, 
a disregard of natural principles that is dangerous to health. 
We have seen that disease is a departure from the normal. To 
eat properly we must understand what is normal in regard to 
appetite; we must know what to eat, what to avoid, when to 
eat, when to fast, how to eat. These branches of the subject 
have been thoroughly discussed in the first volume of this work 
on Diet, but here we wish to call attention to some common 
and well known errors in diet which produce disease. 

That insufficient food causes disease, is known to all who 
have seen or read of the famines of India, Asia, and elsewhere, 
or of the potato famine in Ireland and similar shortages of 
staple articles of diet among the poor of many lands. While 
what Jesus said is undoubtedly true, viz., that “man shall not 
live by bread [food] alone,” it is a fact of universal observa¬ 
tion that all animals subsist upon food. A diminution of this 
supply of food below a normal ration means malnutrition—in¬ 
complete nutrition, and this is disease. 

But not only may the total quantity of food be below nor¬ 
mal. One may be fed upon food which seems to be quite suffi¬ 
cient in bulk for one’s needs, and yet be insufficiently 
or improperly fed. This we believe to be the case with white 
and bleached flour. Babies fed on a mixture made of white 
flour, water and sugar are poor, weak, anemic creatures and 
thousands of them die annually. Adults fed on white flour 
do not have the strength that do those fed on whole wheat 
flour, and constipation with its attendant evils is often the re¬ 
sult of its use. 




100 MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


If we were to enumerate all the dietetic errors of which the 
American people are guilty, we are afraid our list would be 
as startling as it would be long. The majority of Americans 
eat too much and they eat too great a variety of food at one 
meal. One has but to look at the menus of an ordinary hotel, 
especially those of the high class hotel, where course dinners 
are still the rule, or the American plan of service is still in 
vogue, to find adequate proof of this statement. From five 
to eight and even ten courses are served, often with a variety 
in each course. Take a full course dinner for example—I 
quote from a menu of August, 1919:—Cantaloupe; clams or 
oysters; soup; fish; (with relishes, olives, radishes, onions, and 
pickles—sweet, sour and Dill) ; entree of minced chicken; 
roast beef, salad, squab, (with a full assortment of vegetables) ; 
ice cream, cake, pie and other desserts; crackers, cheese; and 
coffee. This is an ordinary standard menu of a first class 
hotel, and no account has been taken of ice water, tea, milk, 
lemonade or other drinks, or the tidbits and relishes that some 
people habitually use while partaking of a meal of this char¬ 
acter. Does it need much wisdom to know that to eat heartily 
of such a meal is a crime against any stomach and that disease 
is an almost inevitable result? 

For a moment recall the important fact that the stomach 
is a muscular pouch which receives all these various articles 
of diet and drink together, and then proceeds to mix them 
thoroughly . Contemplate this stomach mixture. Or better 
still, suppose you take all these various articles of food enu¬ 
merated and mix them together in a large punch bowl. Now 
stir them altogether and carefully examine the mixture. Do 
you not think the result would he a frightful warning? 

The experiences of all races in all ages have taught that too 
many varieties of food at a meal are always provocative of 
disease. It is the habit of most people today to eat too many 
different foods at the same meal. They also eat entirely too 
much. 

If we would eat less in quantity, masticate more thoroughly 
and avoid such a great variety, confining the meal to, say, two or 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


• 101 


three articles, the digestion would be carried on to a far great¬ 
er advantage. It is unwise, to say the least, to eat a com¬ 
bination of various articles of food at one meal. We eat all 
we really require of one or two articles of food and 
then we proceed to tickle the appetite with half a dozen other 
foods, while if the meal had been confined to two or three ar¬ 
ticles, we should not have eaten half as much. 

Another serious dietetic error is found in connection with 
most foods where we eat too much and of too great variety. 
They are nearly all very highly seasoned; Salt, pepper, vine¬ 
gar, with other spices and condiments are used to great ex¬ 
tent, and when so used they are undoubtedly harmful and 
provocative of disease. 

But it is not only the diet of the well-to-do that is disease- 
producing. The poor and the artisan are too often both ignor¬ 
ant and careless in their dietetic habits. Food is improperly 
cooked, and oftentimes depraved tastes are followed in the way 
of greasy pastries, meats fried in lard, sausages which are 
either too highly seasoned or preserved with injurious chemi¬ 
cals, and the whole meal washed down with ice water, hot 
coffee or beer instead of its obnoxious features being amelio¬ 
rated by proper mastication. 

This brings us to the consideration of another bad dietetic 
habit, namely, eating too fast. One has but to watch the 
people of a great city at its noonday meal to fully realize the 
evils of this habit. And in this consideration, we will leave 
out the people who are financially able to eat the elaborate 
course meals we have described, and who compel themselves 
to take more time. We refer to the class who visit the cheap 
restaurants, cafeterias, lunch rooms, etc. These, as a rule, are 
the men and women who do the actual work of a community 
and who, therefore, should always be in the highest state of 
mental and physical efficiency. Watch them from the time 
they leave their store, factory, workshop or office. They hurry 
to put on their hats, hurry to the eating place, hurry inside, 
give their order in a hurry (or if in a cafeteria, hurry to have 
themselves served)* are impatient until their food arrives, of- 




102 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ten commanding the waiter to “hurry it up”; and when fairly 
seated before their food, fairly attack it with a fury of hurry 
that would be ludicrous were it not both disagreeable and pain¬ 
ful to contemplate. Instead of properly masticating hard 
food, it is bolted or washed down with water, coffee, tea or 
beer. And in hundreds of cases one may see the victims of these 
bad dietetic habits taking a pill or powder before or after the 
meal to counteract the ill effects of their own ignorance or in¬ 
difference. Then, instead of taking a little rest after the meal, 
they hurry back to their work, taxing brain, hand or eyes un¬ 
duly, and thereby adding an additional burden to their already 
overworked body. 

This hurried mastication—or rather this insult to the real 
idea of mastication—results in putting an extra burden upon 
the stomach, and at the same time works a direct injury to the 
teeth. 

Your stomach is not supplied with teeth; your teeth are in 
your mouth. They were put there for a purpose. No wonder 
we have need for so many dentists. If you feed a cow on slop 
food, her teeth will fall out. If you feed yourself on mushy 
food, if you use mostly those foods which require no chewing, 
your teeth will gradually lose their strength and vitality and 
will require fillings and may finally be destroyed through de¬ 
cay. Horace Fletcher, the mastication expert, proved that you 
can live on half or at least three-quarters the amount of food 
you are eating at present if you will simply masticate your food 
thoroughly. Thorough mastication does not mean thirty-two 
times as has been advocated by Gladstone, the renowned Eng¬ 
lish statesman. It means that you should masticate and con¬ 
tinue masticating every mouthful until it disappears without 
swallowing. It frequently takes a great deal of practice to 
cultivate the mastication habit—to actually make it a habit. 
In some cases it takes determination. We have to be persis¬ 
tent for a long period. If you were to masticate to the ex¬ 
treme advocated by Mr. Fletcher, you would have to chew an 
ordinary mouthful of food from seventy-five to one hundred 
times in order to thoroughly masticate and liquefy it until it 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


103 


would pass down your throat without any effort being made to 
swallow. As a rule, if you will simply retain the idea that food 
should be swallowed at all times without effort, that is, that 
you should never make an effort to swallow your food, and 
never, by any means, wash it down with water, milk, tea or any 
other liquid, that you should masticate it until it seems to disap¬ 
pear without swallowing, you can rest assured that you are 
masticating sufficiently. This might not require you to mas¬ 
ticate to the extent advocated by Mr. Fletcher, but you would 
be following the laws of mastication as nearly as can be expec¬ 
ted. If it were not for the liquids that are used at mealtimes, 
very many human beings would nearly choke to death in en¬ 
deavoring to swallow their food. The average individual takes 
a mouthful of food, and washes it down with a swallow of 
coffee, without mastication. 

Another gross dietetic error is that eating keeps up the 
strength. We eat three meals a day because it is our rule, 
not because the body calls for it. Few people are able to eat 
three hearty meals each day without injury. It is not what we 
eat but what we digest that nourishes us, and when food is not 
digested every additional particle taken into the stomach is a 
direct injury and a sure inciter to disease. Few people know 
what real normal hunger is because they never give the body 
a chance to find out. The craving for food that we all have 
at the usual meal hours—that gnawing, empty sensation, is not 
hunger, as all can testify who have taken a fast for a few days, 
and have then felt the generous flow of healthful saliva, the 
keen delight of feeling the teeth biting a hard, dry biscuit, or 
the pleasure of masticating a dry morsel that ordinarily he 
would never have looked at, without any appetizers, condi¬ 
ments, extras or “fixins.” 

Unless the normal, healthful appetite calls for it, let the 
stomach rest, by taking a fast for a day, a week, or even longer. 
As a rule there will be no danger. It is not often that a fast 
can possibly do the slightest harm, and with all but one out of 
a million it will do much good. 

Here is another important consideration, The^less you eat j 






104 


MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


to maintain health and strength and the vitality that is essen¬ 
tial, the longer the human machinery will wear; the longer you 
will live; the fewer diseases you will have, and the stronger 
you will be in every conceivable way. 

I have also demonstrated in my own and thousands of 
other cases that the more one adheres to a wholesome diet, the 
more you can rely upon your appetite and stomach to tell you 
what is good for you and the reverse. It becomes like a tender 
conscience—more sensitive to good and evil, and therefore, in 
time, can be absolutely relied upon. For instance: Many per¬ 
sons, when they have been accustomed to three meals a day 
and change to a more reasonable diet, find that their stomach 
causes them more trouble than it did when they were eating 
three meals daily. Then they become aware that they have a 
stomach. In other words, the stomach develops a capacity to 
discriminate between right and wrong; and some, when they 
notice this particular inclination, have the impression that they 
are beginning to acquire stomach trouble. Never were they 
further mistaken. They are, in reality, just beginning to get 
ready to really enjoy the pleasures of a healthy stomach, for 
this slight distress is proof that the delicate nerves of the 
stomach are coming to life. They are not being “doped” with 
food, and they begin to understand the difference between 
wholesome food and that which is pernicious, and the more 
closely you adhere to what is normal and right, the more deli¬ 
cately acute will become the nerves of the stomach. Then 
when you fail to obey the rules of dietetic wholesomeness it 
will very plainly indicate its displeasure in pain and discom¬ 
fort. 

r Another important fact has been brought out by our large 
and long continued experience, viz., the danger of giving 
food to those who are suffering from acute diseases. This is 
no longer a theory. It has been proven so often, without a 
single failure, as to have all the positiveness of mathematical 
demonstration. 

In all acute diseases, regardless of what they may be, the 
functional, system is taxed to its utmost in eliminating impuri- 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


103 


ties. It has no time to digest food—no need for food. Proof 
positive that food, either liquid or solid, eaten under these cir¬ 
cumstances, does not nourish the body in the slightest degree, 
is seen clearly in all fever patients. No matter how much food 
they eat, their bodies continue to waste just the same. In fact, 
it will nearly always waste still more when food is given, be¬ 
cause the process of recovery is prolonged under these unnatur¬ 
al circumstances. The process of curing the body of its disease 
is compelled to cease in order to rid itself of the material 
that is forced into an unwilling and unprepared stomach. 
Thus a body already overloaded with an excess of food must 
be subjected to the outrage of being compelled to free itself 
from the additional impurities created by incomplete and im¬ 
perfect digestion always produced when food is eaten under 
these abnormal conditions. 

The muscles of the arms, legs and every part of the body 
are frequently so weak in illness of this character as to be al¬ 
most incapable of action, and still patients and physicians have 
the incomprehensible ignorance to suppose that the stomach is 
still capable of digesting food that would nourish a day 
laborer. 

The stomach is a muscular organ; digestion is carried on 
mostly by muscles, and these muscles are as proportionately 
weak in your stomach as they are in your arms, legs or else¬ 
where—even the digestive fluids are furnished almost entirely 
by elements of the blood which build muscular tissue, and when 
the muscles are weak this element is, of course, not plentifully 
supplied by the blood. Therefore, under these conditions, 
food is not needed and is not craved. But foolish doctors tell 
you that you must feed—that food is necessary to give the 
patient sufficient strength to bring about recovery. The in¬ 
stinct of the patient, which generally testifies to the absolute 
necessity for fasting, is of no importance. “No matter if there 
is no appetite for food you must be fed nevertheless,” says 
the wise (?) doctor. 

Thousands of years before the existence of medical science 
with its vagaries, its powders, its pills and its potions, there 





106 MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


was in the possession of every human being an instinct which 
guided correctly his every action. 

Even dogs, horses, cows and other domestic animals possess 
this instinct, though slightly marred by contact with civiliza¬ 
tion. All wild animals possess it in a perfect state. Though 
human beings of today are not blessed with the great protect¬ 
ing power of this instinct in all its completeness, they are, 
nevertheless, able to determine when they are hungry, and this 
instinct, no matter how much it may have been subverted, is a 
thousand times more capable of accurately dictating as to the 
time when food is needed than is any physician, regardless of 
how great his intelligence may be. 

It will be remembered that when President McKinley was 
shot, I emphasized these facts in Physical Culture Magazine. 
I then believed, as I believe now, that the unhappy man 
was killed more by the food taken than by the assassin’s bullets. 
Indeed, the bulletins of the medical men clearly showed that 
this feeding while the President’s body was enfeebled and 
enfevered was the cause of death. For the first six days after 
the bullets entered his body, he practically ate nothing, and 
his condition was so satisfactory that the physicians who at¬ 
tended him said that he would soon be able to sit up. The 
President was a fleshy, well nourished man and could have 
been well fed from his own body for from thirty to sixty days 
without injury, thus giving every opportunity for the elimina¬ 
tion of all poison generated by the bullet wounds, and allow¬ 
ing them to heal. The effect of a gunshot wound is to produce 
in the body what is practically an acute diseased condition. It 
is a made sore, which in the process of healing is accompanied 
with fever and inflammation. Had this sore in the Presi¬ 
dent’s case been treated by the simple, natural method, no 
food would have been given to him until all fever and inflam¬ 
mation had subsided. Unfortunately, the physicians were 
cursed with the erroneous, and proven to be false, notion that 
to maintain the strength capable of eliminating the fever and 
healing the wounds he must eat. The result was they urged 
the President to eat a meal of coffee, toast and chicken broth. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


107 


The following day they themselves explained that “the accu¬ 
mulation of undigested food in the stomach had at that time 
become as rank as ptomaine and that a bolus of calomel and 
oil had to .be given. It was exceedingly drastic. When re¬ 
lief came, exhaustion followed.” 

Here are cause and effect so clear that a child might read. 
The food was unnecessary and uncalled for. In the fevered 
condition of the President’s body, it could not be digested. 
Undigested, it becomes a mass of poison, breeding ptomaine 
poisons enough to kill a dozen healthy men, let alone one in his 
condition. The result was death and the weeping of a 
nation. 

I have quoted this case at some length in order that its 
lesson might be forcibly impressed upon the minds of 
readers. Let it be clearly understood: In all acute diseases, 
whether caused by accident, or otherwise, do not force the pa¬ 
tient to eat until he positively craves food, and even if he calls 
for food, do not give it until all fever and inflammation have 
subsided. Exactly the same conditions apply in nearly every 
case to patients after undergoing surgical operations. 

From what has been stated it will be seen that we believe 
the following dietetic habits to be serious causes of disease: 
The eating of white flour foods, eating too much, eating too 
large a variety at one meal, eating too fast, drinking at meals 
to wash down food improperly masticated, eating too highly 
seasoned food, eating improper and improperly cooked 
food, improper mastication of food, eating too often, and eat¬ 
ing when suffering from the fever and inflammation of a 
wound, surgical operation or acute disease. 

No wonder that with these conditions constantly violated 
the drug shop with its vast array of drugs and its worse array 
of patent nostrums flaunts itself on every street corner; that 
there are at least as many physicians as there are public school 
teachers, and more sanitariums and hospitals than universi¬ 
ties. To a healthful, hygienic, self-respecting nation, every 
patent medicine advertisement and drug shop should be an in¬ 
sult, and every physician, whose duties were not confined to 




108 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


surgical cases, accidents, births and deaths, should be a re¬ 
proach. 

While we have here treated the subject of diet at some 
length, it has been mainly to show how improper diet con¬ 
tributes to disease. We wish especially to have our readers 
carefully and studiously peruse what we say on the health 
side of this diet question. Here we show what to avoid; there 
what and how to eat to gain and maintain that perfect and 
abounding health which is a perennial joy to its happy pos¬ 
sessor. 

5. Overstrain or Underexercise. —In this category 
may be included overstrain of the eyes by excessive reading 
or under improper conditions; bicyclists and other athletes 
often suffer severe heart and nervous strain by too long con¬ 
tinued performances; many business and professional men, 
and even society women, break down as a result of nervous 
overstrain caused by the rapid pace at which we live. On the 
other hand, much disease is the result of want of exercise. If 
the eyes were closed for months at a time and then suddenly 
exposed to the light it will be found that they are permanently 
injured. So with the muscles. Sometimes the fracture of a 
bone will compel muscles to lie inert for some time. They 
then become “atrophied,” which simply means wasted away, 
with a consequent loss of strength. Thousands of people, how¬ 
ever, suffer daily from underexercise. To put it plainly, they 
are lazy. They eat too much and thus become “logy,” and 
that is an excuse for their laziness. They thus become subject 
to disease and its suffering. We are equally opposed to 
overstrain as to underexercise, but where one person suffers 
disease from the former cause, we are assured there are ten 
thousand who suffer from the latter. 

As w^e shall emphatically show, the science of Physculto- 
pathy has for a fundamental basis the proper exercise of every 
organ and muscle of the body. We contend with greater em¬ 
phasis than any other health teachers or healers of disease that 
all the muscles of the body should constantly be exercised if 
health would be secured and maintained. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


103 


6. Mechanical Causes. —Among these may be stated 
what we term the mechanical accidents, such as cuts, stabs, 
falls, bruises, and the like, but even here the problems are not 
simple. For instance, a man falls from a horse and fractures 
his skull, causing direct injury to the brain. This may induce 
paralysis, and general derangement of the nervous system 
and ultimately a complete wrecking of the digestive system. 
Other mechanical causes of disease are those connected with 
bad habits of clothing, as tight and high-heeled shoes, the use 
of the corset, the wearing of a tight, unventilated hat, etc. 

While the accidents above mentioned are often unavoidable, 
bad habits of clothing are deliberate, or at least wilful, and, 
therefore, the diseases caused by them are preventable. The 
use of tight shoes prevents absorption of the insensible per¬ 
spiration that is continually being given off by the pores of the 
skin, and this inevitably results in disease of the feet. Who 
is there that believes the foul odor that emanates from the feet 
of some persons is a sign of health? Such fetidity is always a 
sign of disease. It is the protest of the much abused feet, and 
is a warning calling for a change in the habits of the foot- 
abuser lest worse suffering come. The soles of the feet, as well 
as the armpits, and the palms of the hands are all especially 
qualified for throwing off waste matter, hence should equally 
be kept clean and aided in their important work. But this 
is only a small part of the trouble. Tight shoes prevent the 
proper circulation of the blood of the feet, and this, and the 
extra undue pressure on certain joints and other places, pro¬ 
duce unsightly, disfiguring and painful enlargements of the 
joints, together with corns, bunions and other feet injuries, We 
speak of the brutality of the Chinese in cramping the feet of 
their women so that they are rendered incapable of walking, 
but our civilized habit is of exactly the same criminal nature, 
limited only in degree. There is no doubt but that one great 
cause of the diminution of the healthful and invigorating exer¬ 
cise of walking arises from this use of improper footgear. 

In addition to the badly ventilated and too tight footgear, 
let us add the high-heeled shoe which distorts the foot in an- 




110 MAC F ADDENDS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


other way. Dr. Francis D. Donoghue, one of Boston’s emi¬ 
nent surgeons, asserts that “only the small fraction of one per 
cent, (practically none) have normal feet or walk properly.” 

He says that thousands of shop girls, domestics, factory 
workers, working men, mechanics, artisans, machinists, and also 
people of the wealthy class are unwittingly but constantly 
laying up a store of trouble by ignorantly abusing the delicate 
joints and tendons of their feet and legs. Many a shop girl 
suffers pain about the hips and of the spine which she attributes 
to some internal trouble, aggravated by being on her feet ten 
of twelve hours a day, when the whole trouble is entirely ow¬ 
ing to ill-fitting shoes with their idiotical and injurious high 
heels. When the foot is encased in one of these destroying im¬ 
plements, the bones, muscles, nerves and tendons not only of 
the foot, but all the way up the legs and back of the body suf¬ 
fer as a result. Hence every person seeking to be free from 
disease and live in perfect health should avoid this class of 
footgear and find one that allows the foot proper ventilation, 
right pose for the heel and the proper and natural freedom of 
the foot in exercise. 

The same strictures that we have used in reference to tight 
shoes applies with equal force to tight, unventilated hats. It 
should need no argument to demonstrate that the natural, nor¬ 
mal condition of man’s head is not bald. Nature has kindly 
designed a hirsute covering for all her human children. Few 
suffer from baldness until it is created by the wearing of un¬ 
hygienic and tight hats. The tight derby, or any tight un¬ 
ventilated hat, is little better than the much-abused stove-pipe. 
The effect on the scalp is much the same. Poor ventilation, 
and the constricting band around the forehead which prevents 
the free circulation of the blood that nourishes the scalp and 
hair roots, unite to accomplish the mischief. And the result 
is, we find young men who are bald. Experience has demon¬ 
strated that baldness is almost entirely preventable. It is un¬ 
natural and abnormal. 

Another mechanical cause of disease is the corset or con¬ 
stricted waist. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


111 


Corsets and Constricting Clothing. —There are tan¬ 
gible reasons for believing that we have passed the day of 
tight lacing and clothing constricting the abdomen to the point 
of injury. Yet it is unfortunately true that no one knows 
what infliction the vagaries of fashion may next saddle upon 
womanhood. It should be remembered that constriction at 
the waist line is certain to prevent effective return of the venous 
blood from the parts below the waist line, hence producing 
imperfect circulation and consequent retention of impurities 
of the blood, thus laying the foundation for tumors, cancers 
and other abnormal and inflamed conditions which force so 
many women to turn to expensive and dangerous operations 
for relief. It is the greatest cause of the functional disorders 
peculiar to women, and by weakening the nervous and muscu¬ 
lar systems is the invariable cause of displacement of the im¬ 
portant internal organs. It thus perverts and often destroys 
the instinct of sex. 

Perfect health demands perfect freedom for exercise of all 
parts of the body. A boy in the free restlessness of his boyish¬ 
ness and refusal to be trammelled by the fears of impropriety, 
and also because society allows him a much larger freedom than 
it does his sister, enjoys this freedom of body to a very great 
degree. Up to the time of puberty, at which time they are sup¬ 
posed to begin to wear long dresses, many girls have a large 
amount of freedom allowed them. But at this time, acting 
under a mistaken idea of kindness in supposing that her child 
needs the support of the corset, or controlled by the insane 
dictates of fashion, the mother encases the flexible, yielding, 
expanding and growing body of her daughter, budding into 
young womanhood, in this monstrous and cursed device of civil¬ 
ization. What is the result? From the very first the constrain¬ 
ing and constricting influences produce nervousness and gen¬ 
eral physical irritability. This may be borne with complacency 
by the young miss, for a short time, while she is under the 
impression that her new article of apparel makes her more 
womanly. But, in time, this complacency wears off, especially 
as the injurious effects of the corset begin to be felt. The vital 

Vol. 1—9 




112 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


organs which, viewed from the standpoint of motherhood and 
of the welfare of the race, are far more important in the woman 
than in the man, are constricted, thrust out of place, diseased, 
and thus rendered incapable of properly performing their God- 
appointed functions. The corset ultimately injures and makes 
shapeless, flaccid, and nerveless the flesh at the waist line; 
it destroys the beauty lines of the body, of the limbs, arms 
and bust by restricting nourishment, interfering with normal 
circulation and thus lessening vital power. The constriction 
prevents the perfect return of the venous blood from the parts 
below the waist line, hence produces imperfect circulation and 
consequent retention of impurities of the blood, thus laying 
the foundation for tumors, cancers and other abnormal and 
inflamed conditions which cause so many women to turn to 
expensive and dangerous operations for relief. 

7. Physical Causes. —Disease is induced by exposure to 
undue cold or heat, impure air, lightning or electricity. People 
are affected by high altitudes and aeronauts suffer when they 
ascend above a certain elevation. 

A great cause of disease is the custom of overheating the 
body by too warm rooms, and too heavy clothing. This seems 
to be an American proclivity. In England, where the inhabi¬ 
tants exercise more freely and lead more vigorous lives, one will 
find drawing-rooms from ten to fifteen degrees cooler than 
those of their American cousins. The waxy color seen in so 
many American faces comes from lack of exposure to fresh 
air and sunshine, dearth of exercise, and living in hot rooms. 

Build up warmth in the body by accelerating the circula¬ 
tion; by using the right sort of food; by refusing to coddle 
yourself in warm places under the delusion that you are mak¬ 
ing yourself comfortable. Live out of doors as much as pos¬ 
sible, and thrive upon the oxygen that is essential to keep the 
fire burning within your body. Fight the tendency to wear 
more clothing than is needed, lest you become so cold-blooded 
you will encumber yourself with so many clothes that circu¬ 
lation and general health will be interfered with. Excessive 
clothing is inclined to stop the pores and partially paralyze 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


113 


their activity and thus one becomes far more liable to colds 
and other complaints. 



The barefooted boys and girls that one sees in Scotland on a 
winter day know nothing of colds or the many other ailments 
that our pampered children, living in hothouse parlors, have to 
fight all the time. It is a fact that the more the body is 
hardened, the less susceptible one is to disease and the more 
vitality he will generate. Linen makes better underwear than 
wool, because it more quickly absorbs the impurities, and there¬ 
fore allows the pores to retain their activity. Next to linen, 
cotton makes the best underwear; and these materials can be 
worn with comfort during the coldest weather. 

Endeavor to get hold of the great principle here involved, 
viz., that he who pampers himself in the assurance that he is 
thus taking care of himself is doing the very opposite of what 
he desires. The greatest care of the body is that which secures 
the most perfect health. And as we shall fully show in later 
portions of this series of books, that person only is wise who 
fortifies the body against cold by naturally warming the blood. 
By exercise, sharp walking, deep and nasal breathing out of 
doors, and proper food “put your overcoat into your blood,” 
and thus you will be able to resist disease, as well as enjoy 
health. 



A serious cause of disease is the breathing of impure an\ 
Neglect to supply the proper quantity of oxygen is the cause 
of many very serious ailments. It produces disease frequently 
in the first instance and is the cause of its continuance in 
others. Early in the history of the Physical Culture Maga¬ 
zine we called attention to the value of outdoor treatment for 
consumption. We emphasized the importance of this method 
of treatment, and the result of our efforts and those of others 
is seen in the marvelous change that has come about every¬ 
where in the treatment of this complaint. The medical pro¬ 
fession is now advocating the outdoor treatment, and, strange 
as it may seem, many professors of various medical schools 
have admitted that medicine is ineffective in the treatment 
of consumption. Now, within the simple theories that are 




114 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


being definitely advocated largely by nearly all members of 
the healing art who have eliminated the drugging idea, you 
will find the real science of bodily rejuvenation by natural 
diet, natural breathing in the open air, and natural exercise. 

Consumptives and all kinds of invalids are now being made 
to sleep out of doors, even in winter, with the most beneficial 
effects. 

The need for a proper supply of oxygen cannot be too 
strongly emphasized. It is necessary to ward off disease. It 
is still more necessary to cure disease. It is therefore the duty 
of every one to cultivate the fresh air habit until the average 
person may regard you as a fresh air crank. Fresh air cranks 
are a great source of annoyance to those who insist on closed 
windows. Yet it is well to secure fresh air at all reasonable 
hazards in the way of annoying or offending others. Health 
is a matter of primary importance, and in no way is health 
more surely gained and regained than by the continuous 
breathing of pure, sun-laden, vivifying, moving, fresh, out- 
of-door air, and in no way more quickly lost than by breath¬ 
ing shut in, poison-laden, dead, fetid, heavy, indoor air. 

Excesses. —While it is only a general term, we believe 
that a note of warning should be sounded to the effect that 
excess is a great cause of disease . 

With prosperity come all sorts of evil influences. By far 
the worst of these may be termed our excesses. The science 
of life, to the average individual, is a closed book. He knows 
little, cares less, of himself and of the science of his natural 
requirements. Civilization has largely destroyed the instincts 
which, when followed, save us from excesses, and having pro¬ 
vided for us no other guide, we are left without safeguard, a 
prey to the unnatural and abnormal desires that civilization 
has fostered in us. Everywhere, in every department of life, 
we find excesses. We eat too much, we drink too much, we 
ride too fast, we work too hard, we sit up too late, we overheat 
our rooms, we dance too much, we make too much money, or 
strive too hard to make it. Temperance is taught everywhere 
in words } but in fact few of the teachers themselves demon- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


115 


strate in their own lives that they know the meaning of the 
word. With all our advance in science and knowledge, with 
all our increased wealth, with all our increased opportunities, 
it is doubtful if we get one-fourth as much real happiness out 
of life as our forefathers did who lived without our advan¬ 
tages, but equally without our excesses. The average human 
being today wears out half of his life by his excessive striv¬ 
ing for enjoyment the other half. The human machine is worn 
out before it has lived half its life and in the excessive race 
for pleasure a large part of the power to enjoy life is destroyed. 

As a nation, we are rolling in wealth, we are revelling in 
luxury. Even those families that consider themselves poor 
often have many times more than they really need. They have 
more food than is good for them, they usually wear more cloth¬ 
ing than is healthful, and they are superabundantly supplied 
with what are supposed to be the necessities of life. 

Nothing is known of the value of abstinence in this age. 
Fasting and prayer as a combination have not been handed 
down to us by our forefathers. Dissipations of every kind 
stare us in the face at every turn. The victim of excesses 
knows nothing of life from its most magnificent viewpoint. 
He is usually jaded, worked out; and there are very few mo¬ 
ments in his existence that he really feels that exhilaration, 
that buoyancy, that comes with superb health. 

Intemperance is a terrible sin. Alcohol has ruined millions 
of lives and has shortened the lives of millions more. But it 
is not by any means the only evil. Overeating is a sin that 
exists in practically every home. It is not here and there— 
it is everywhere. How many years of your life are you spend¬ 
ing for the privilege of stuffing your stomach? Some give 
twenty or twenty-five years, others from forty to sixty years. 
Have you figured out, dear reader, how many years of your life 
you are expending in this manner? There are excesses every¬ 
where in life, but there is no evil or no combination of evils that 
has such a terrible effect upon bodily vigor, upon nervous ener¬ 
gies, as a continuous habit of eating beyond the needs of the 
body. You simply wear out the human machine years and 




116 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


years before there is really any need of its showing the slight¬ 
est sign of weakness. 

Eating three or more meals daily that are not intensely en¬ 
joyed, as a habit, is criminal. It is worse than criminal, because 
as a rule you sit down to a meal before the previous meal has 
been fully digested. The crazy idea that food is needed merely 
to keep up your strength has filled thousands of graves. 

Learn to eat what you need. Learn to scientifically feed 
the human machine. Don’t dissipate in work. Don’t be ex¬ 
cessive in anything. Take care of your body. It is the only 
one you have and you are liable to need it next year ahd the 
year after, and in fact, for many years to come. Don’t wear 
out the vital organs by compelling them to handle from two 
to four times as much food as is needed to fully nourish your 
body. 

Any attention that is given to these important subjects will 
be repaid over and over again, hundreds, yes, thousands of 
times, not only in increased physical health, but your earning 
power, financially, will be vastly increased. You will be a bet¬ 
ter man, a stronger woman, and life will open up opportunities 
under these changed conditions that will amaze you. 

There is a healthy expenditure of energy that is beneficial 
to all concerned, but the great trouble with the American race 
is that it shirks this healthy expenditure and then goes to ex¬ 
cess in those things where excess ultimately produces disease, 
unhappiness, misery and death. 

8. Chemical Causes. —A child drinks carbolic acid, men 
and women are partially suffocated by the escape of illuminat¬ 
ing or sewer gas, painters and paper hangers are poisoned by 
chemicals used in their profession, whole communities are 
poisoned by impure water. In this category belongs the use of 
tobacco, drugs and alcoholic liquors. I might also add highly 
seasoned foods, etc. 

There are many professions whose followers have our heart¬ 
iest sympathies. In their struggles to gain a livelihood they 
seem compelled to engage in industries which are direct pro¬ 
ducers of disease. Glass blowers, hat makers, rag sorters, coal 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


117 


miners, coal weighers, cement makers, and all those employed 
where dust and other small particles are being inhaled either 
through the mouth or nostrils, are oftentimes in danger of 
disease. Such workers are to be pitied. They deserve our 
deepest sympathy, and we should gladly urge the adoption 
of all methods that would ameliorate their lot. We hail all 
legislation that seeks to benefit or improve the hard conditions 
under which they labor. 

But what shall be said of those men who wilfully, deliber¬ 
ately and habitually take into their bodies, for a mere tempo¬ 
rary pleasure, those substances that the experiences of the ages 
have taught are great and awful producers of disease? I 
refer to the use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs. ^ 

Alcohol. That alcohol in its various forms is one of the 
greatest causes of disease, we think no physician can deny and 
no careful observer will dispute. We regard it as one of the 
greatest curses of our civilization. We believe it would have 
been infinitely better had its use never been discovered. 

To quote eminent scientific authority: “Until very re¬ 
cently, the drinking habit was looked upon as an incurable 
evil. Efforts were confined to exhortations which usually went 
unheeded. A great advance was made when it came to be 
realized that complete abstinence could alone free the in¬ 
dividual from his desire for alcoholic beverages. The damage 
done to the various organs cannot be rectified, but the drinker 
can be warned of further inroads on his health which are liable 
to occur.” 

But, immeasurably better than the cure of diseases induced 
by alcohol is the healthful life that abstains from them. We 
urge absolute and life-long abstinence upon all who seek to be 
free from disease and to live in perfect health. 

Do not touch, taste or handle the dangerous stuff, for then, 
and then only, is one safe. 

The tobacco habit manifests itself in five different ways, all 
harmful, all disgusting, and all equally deserving the strenu¬ 
ous opposition of every advocate of perfect health. These five 




118 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


forms are cigarette smoking, cigar smoking, pipe smoking, 
chewing and taking of snuff. 

Cigarette Smoking. Independent of the moral aspect of 
this question, we will discuss cigarette smoking purely from 
the physical standpoint. The testimony of chemists, physi¬ 
cians, criminal experts and athletes is absolutely unanimous 
in regard to the physical injuries that follow the formation 
of this habit. It generally begins with an effort to be smart. 
It soon becomes a pleasure and a means to tide over a moment 
of nervousness or embarrassment. Next it becomes a neces¬ 
sity of life. When it has attained this stage, its victim loses 
physical, mental and moral control. As Dr. Orison Swett 
Marden, formerly editor of Success , forcefully said: 

“I denounce it simply because of its blighting, blasting ef¬ 
fect upon one’s success in life; because it draws off the energy, 
saps the vitality and force which ought to be made to tell in 
one’s career; because it blunts the sensibilities and deadens the 
thinking faculties; because it kills the ambition and the finer 
instincts, and the more delicate aspirations and perceptions; 
because it destroys the ability to concentrate the mind, which 
is the secret of all achievement. 

“The whole tendency of the cigarette nicotine poison in the 
youth is to arrest development. It is fatal to all normal func¬ 
tions. It blights and blasts both health and morals. It not 
only ruins the faculties, but it unbalances the mind, as well. 
Many of the most pitiable cases of insanity in our asylums are 
cigarette fiends. It creates abnormal appetites, strange, un¬ 
defined longings, discontent, uneasiness, nervousness, irrita¬ 
bility, and in many, an almost irresistible inclination to crime. 
In fact, the moral depravity which follows the cigarette habit 
is something frightful. Lying, cheating, impurity, loss of 
moral courage and manhood, a complete dropping of life’s 
standards all along the line, are its general results. 

“Magistrate Crane, of New York City, says: ‘Ninety-nine 
out of a hundred boys between the ages of ten and seventeen 
years who come before me charged with crime have their fin¬ 
gers disfigured by yellow cigarette stains. I am not a crank 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


119 


on this subject, I do not care to pose as a reformer, but it is 
my opinion that cigarettes will do more than liquor to ruin 
boys. When you have arraigned before you boys hopelessly 
deaf through the excessive use of cigarettes, boys who have 
stolen their sisters’ earnings, boys who absolutely refuse to 
work, who'do nothing but gamble and steal, you cannot help 
seeing that there is some direct cause, and a great deal of this 
boyhood crime is, to my mind, easy to trace to the deadly 
cigarette. There is something in the poison of the cigarette 
that seems to get into the system of the boy and to destroy all 
moral fiber.” 

“E. H. Harriman, the head of the Union Pacific Railroad 
system, said that they ‘might as well go to a lunatic asylum 
for their employees as to hire cigarettes smokers.’ 

“Cigarette smoking early impairs the digestive organs. It 
causes a gradual loss of appetite, and the wretched victim sub¬ 
stitutes more cigarettes for food. In fact, he finally gets to 
a point where he becomes a slave to the cigarette and cannot 
do without it. 

“Herein lies one of the greatest dangers of the cigarette. 
It creates a longing which it cannot satisfy.” 

Cigar and Pipe Smoking. It is hard to tell which is the 
more dangerous and more disgusting habit of the two. The 
time has gone by when the cigar can be said to be the rich 
man’s refined method of taking nicotine. It is the nicotine 
poisoning that both kinds of smokers wish to enjoy. This 
nicotine is a volatile oil distributed through the tobacco plant. 
In its pure state, it is as deadly a poison as prussic acid. The 
great surgeon, Sir Benjamin Brodie, once administered a 
single drop hypodermically to a cat and the animal fell dead 
almost as quickly as if it had been struck by lightning. In 
the case of the smoker, the nicotine enters the system either 
through the tissues of the mouth, or if he “inhales,” through 
those of the lungs. While the testimony of smokers cannot 
be ignored that the sensations produced by this process are 
sedative and agreeable, the constant and accumulative effects 
are injurious to a high degree. The immediate effects vary 




120 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


considerably according to the temperament of the smoker. 
In some cases it acts as a sedative or soothing influence. In 
others it acts as a stimulant and nerves up the smoker to re¬ 
newed activity, but in all cases the injury to the body and 
mind is sure, and sooner or later the victim will feel its deadly 
influence. These statements are verified by the scientific asser¬ 
tions of scores of leading authorities. 

Chewing. Everything that has been said on the smoking 
habit can practically be said on the chewing habit, and in some 
respects, perhaps, with greater force. In chewing, the tobacco 
user absorbs more direct nicotine, although he generally falls 
into the disgusting habit of spitting out, every now and then, 
a large mouthful of tobacco juice. But while this seems to be 
ridding himself of the poisonous nicotine, he does not empty 
his mouth until the effect he desires has been produced by the 
absorption of a sufficient quantity through the tissues into the 
system. Another great injury induced by the chewer of 
tobacco is the undue increase of the flow of saliva. Any un¬ 
natural, habitual excitation of this flow is sure to produce seri¬ 
ous derangement of the salivary glands, and to chemically 
injure the saliva produced. Consequently, in addition to the 
nicotine poisoning induced by this habit, the tobacco chewer 
has to overcome in some way the inadequacy of the digestive 
processes brought about by the injury to the saliva. 

Snuff Taking. This habit is on a par with the other 
nicotine poisoning habits, the only difference being in the 
method of the application of the nicotine. The tobacco is 
ground into a fine powder and then snuffed up the nostrils. It 
is thus brought into contact with the delicate mucous mem¬ 
branes of the nasal passages where it is moistened and the nico¬ 
tine extracted, from whence it is conveyed by the breathing 
process, or by the flow of the mucus into the posterior part 
of the mouth and down the throat, thus entering the whole 
system. Though for a time it was considered a most elegant 
habit, even the dainty dames of the courts of England and 
France indulging in it, it is now justly considered equally as 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


121 


disgusting and filthy as chewing and all medical testimony is to 
the effect that it is just as harmful. 

Drug Taking . A cause of disease equally as perilous as 
that of alcohol or tobacco, and as prolific in its ultimate mani¬ 
festations of suffering, is the drug habit. Thousands of per¬ 
sons annually form this habit innocently and ignorantly. They 
find themselves suffering from temporary inconvenience of 
the stomach, a headache, or something of the kind, and see¬ 
ing the advertisements of a sure cure flaunting from billboards 
and placards in the most respectable drug stores of their home 
city, they innocently imagine that all they have to do is to take 
a few doses of this much advertised and lauded medicine to 
make themselves feel all right. The “cure all” probably con¬ 
tains alcohol, cocaine, chloral, morphine, opium, antikammia, 
acetanilid, or some other drug equally obnoxious and injurious. 
The first few doses soothe the suffering by drugging the nerves 
into insensibility, and the innocent drug-taker is so pleased with 
his experiment that he renews it, when, a few weeks later, he 
again suffers from overeating, late hours, overindulgence in a 
“glass with a friend,” or finds himself “let down” with over¬ 
work or the constant strain of his nerve-wearing occupation. 

Another great danger lurks here. The fact that he can so 
soon “cure” himself has the tendency to render him reckless 
to the cause of his trouble. Why shouldn’t he enjoy himself> 
he asks, if he can so easily remove the effects. It only needs a 
glass of this, or a dose of that, or a few pills or powders and 
he will be all right. Thus the drug has lured its victim the 
more quickly to his destruction. 

A few months of this course of procedure and the end is 
certain. The drug habit is formed. Everything else gives 
way to the gratification of this new appetite, and the victim 
now enters upon the open pathway to disgrace and death— 
ruined, slain by drugs. This is no fanciful picture. Millions 
have gone this road to destruction in America alone, and there 
is not a city in our land today that does not have its army of 
men, women—aye, and youths and maidens, whose lives are 
wrecked and who are dragging out a living death owing to 




122 31ACF AD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the curse of these pernicious drug habits having become fas¬ 
tened upon them. 

But not only are habits thus formed by the sufferers pre¬ 
scribing (by constantly flaunted suggestion) for themselves. 
A recent editorial writer asserts his belief “that at least ninety 
per cent of the victims of opium, chloral, cocaine and other 
brain and nerve-destroying drugs contract these habits through 
prescriptions given by regular doctors, and in a large number 
of cases the patients are entirely ignorant of the nature of 
the drug that is administered or of the fact that they are tak¬ 
ing any habit-forming poison.” 


























♦ 












A« 


"v 









PLATE A 



1. Epidermis. 

2. Granular layer with pigment. 

3. Papilla? with blood vessels. 

4 . Papillae with touch organs. 

5. Nerve fibers. 

6. Sweat glands. 

7. Openings of sweat glands. 

8. Sebaceous glands. 

9 . Openings of sebaceous glands. 


THE HUMAN SKIN. 
Section Through the Skin 
(Very highly magnified) 
(Detailed reproduction) 


Hair muscles. 

Connective tissue fibers. 
Cross section of same. 
Hair follicle. 

Outer sheath layer. 


Inner sheath layer 
Outside of hair. 
Core. 


18. Bulb 

19. Papilla?. 

20. Shaft. 


Cross Section of 

1. Bone. 

2. Connective tissue. 

3. Nail wall. 

4. Nail furrows. 


a Finger Showing Nail. 

b. Corrugated bed 
of the nail. 

6. Bayer of young 
horny cells. 

7. Boundary layer. 

8. Horny layer. 


End Bulbs. Organs of Tou 

„ V (Very highly magnified.) 

1. Outer skin, with pigment cells. 

2. Connective tissue fibers. 

3. Papillae. 

4. End bulbs. . _ «~r*sf SSi 

5. Nerve fibers. 


Longitudinal Section of 

1. Bone of the last joint. 

2. Matrix of nail. 

3. Finger nail. 

4 . Epidermis. 


Section of a Hair. 

(Very highly magnified.) 
(Detailed reproduction.) 
Outer sheath layer. 
Inner sheath layer. 
Shaft'. 

Pigment layer. 

Core 

























CHAPTER IV. 

THE WONDERS OF THE HUMAN BODY. 


M EN and women usually deem it necessary to go travel¬ 
ing in order to behold the wonders of the earth, 
making far pilgrimages to the Alps, the Pyramids, 
or the Canals of Venice, while all the time they can find nothing 
in the world so wonderful as their own bodies. In point of 
external beauty and grace of outline, there is nothing in the 
world of flowers or in the animal kingdom that can favorably 
compare with the human body at its best, when it is normally 
developed, filled with vitality and radiating the charms of 
health. And in regard to the internal mechanism, surely, 
nothing so marvellously delicate and yet powerful, so complex 
and yet efficient, was ever known. All animal life is wonderful 
enough, even vegetable life, when we study and observe it 
closely, but no other creature has anything like the powers 
and faculties of man, the infinite possibilities of his two perfect 
hands, for instance, and the brain equipment with which to 
manipulate not only those hands, but everything else that is on 
earth or in the air. Truly, what an amazing thing is human 
life! 

How frail a thing seems life, sometimes, snuffed out 
perhaps by a swift little ball of lead, a mere speck of some 
deadly chemical, or the sting of a venomous bug! And yet, 
how continuously enduring is human life, surviving every 
hostile condition, the tropical heat, the Arctic cold, and domi¬ 
nating all the earth. How brief is the span of life, and yet 
how it has persisted all down through the ages, the chain of 
life passing unbroken from one generation to another, with 
vitality undiminished, and with never an interruption of the 
constant, endless beating of the human heart through these 
hundreds of thousands of years. 

Think how our own lives are linked with the past, back, 
back, back, and yet still farther back, far away into the unfath¬ 
omable. And yet, we know that of all the life that has been on 

this earth, generation after generation, ad infinitum , we repre¬ 
ss 


126 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


sent the best. Just fancy, reader, by what a narrow chance it 
comes that you are here on earth; for if any single one of the 
eternal chain of your ancestors had failed to live out his destiny, 
there would have been no you . The same with each one of us. 
Let our hearts swell with pride as we think just who we are. 
Not the offspring, we, of the fittest to survive of a single genera¬ 
tion, but the descendants of the fittest for survival of every gen¬ 
eration that ever was. If our progenitors at any single time, any 
year, any day, any minute, of all those eons and ages had met 
with some catastrophe, or had proven to be among the degen¬ 
erate and unfit of the time, our chain of existence would have 
ended then and we would never have known, would never bf 
here to know. 

But yet here we are, having arrived through channels of 
growth as wonderful as the fact of our being here. The indi¬ 
vidual man, proud lord of creation, comes into being as a single 
cell, the very next thing to nothing in size, but a cell filled with 
the infinite potentialities and possibilities which he may later 
realize and develop. How wondrously, through that single 
little cell, there survive the innate faculties, qualities and char¬ 
acteristics of both the father and the mother, the gifts of the 
countless generations farther back, together with the original 
tendencies resulting from the combinations of all these forces. 
From his almost incredible existence in this wee bit of proto¬ 
plasmic matter not so big as a grain of sand, how the child 
grows and takes form, with the subdivision and multiplication 
of cells and the organization of these cells into the various 
members, organs and tissues of a human being, meanwhile de¬ 
pending for life upon the unfailing sustenance brought through 
the blood stream of the mother. How mysteriously there, 
beneath the heart of the mother, the tiny heart of the new life 
commences to beat, while every tissue and organ of the embry¬ 
onic human assumes its ultimate perfect form and gradually 
comes into readiness for the life-long service which it is to do. 
Finally, with what amazing and unerring judgment the subcon¬ 
scious forces of life seem to know just when this part of the 
mother’s work is done, just when the time is ripe and the little 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


127 


one ready to take up the struggles of existence in the external 
world. 

Arrived in our midst, how strangely and yet how faultlessly 
those tiny, inexperienced little organs take up their respective 
functions, how the delicate lungs begin to breathe, ministering 
to the incessant and imperative demand for that oxygen which 
but a few moments before had been supplied direct from the 
blood that visited the lungs of the mother, and with what ener¬ 
getic goodwill the muscles of that diminutive tongue contract 
to produce a suction that will bring forth a dinner out of any¬ 
thing that offers it. (The new-born infant does not suck with 
its lips.) 

If we say that the baby doesn’t know anything, we are 
mistaken, although it does not know them in the conscious way 
in which we know them in later years. It possesses the limited 
supply of instincts retained in the human race, and in this way 
knows just enough for its needs of the moment, knows how to 
get along with the mother’s help, knows how to make trouble 
when it has trouble, how to move its bodily members sufficiently 
to develop its muscles and learn their better control, and, in the 
learning of this, to educate the cells of the brain. 

The exceptional length of the period of infancy and growth 
of the human being is a peculiar and significant fact, and one 
which to the casual observer may seem to be at variance with 
the superiority of humankind in other respects. Among all 
forms of animal life the human baby is the most helpless at 
the time that it comes into the world. It is more perfect than 
any other, even then, along the lines of its own human organiza¬ 
tion, but it is not as capable in any respect as the newly born 
of any of the lower animals; it is more dependent upon the 
mother for incessant and tender care. We all know that the 
puppy of six months is a very active and vigorous creature 
—indeed, not far from being physically as capable as he ever 
will be. Some of the lower animals are able to walk about, or 
at least crawl, the very day they are born. With ourselves, 
however, it is different. At six months of age we can still do 
very little; certainly we cannot emulate the agility of the 




128 


MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


puppy. At six months we are still learning the use of our 
muscles and our sense of balance, but are not even able to walk 
as yet. At two years of age the dog is at his best, but at two 
years the child is still only in the beginning of its development, 
when compared with the long period of growth, both mental 
and physical, which lies ahead of it. Maturity will not arrive 
for a score of years. 

But why this exceptionally long period of growth and 
dependence upon the parents in the case of the human off¬ 
spring? Might we have not supposed, with the superiority of 
our kind, that we should be able to outstrip any of our lower 
animal kindred right from birth? 

It is, in truth, this extended period of dependence and 
growth that makes possible the high attainments of mankind, 
whereas the rapid growth of our furred fellow creatures only 
marks their limitations when they have reached maturity. The 
nerve organization of man is of a finer nature, for one thing,and 
this requires a longer time to develop. Furthermore, because of 
the extended period of the necessity of the supervision and care 
of the parent, not only is the child provided with greater possi¬ 
bilities for education and training, but from the standpoint 
of the parents there is formed the basis of that form of estab¬ 
lished family life which is one of the great factors of human 
progress. But the real reason is that which follows. 

In the development of the human race, the more primitive 
instincts, or “race habits,” of the lower forms of life have 
largely given way to the power of reason. Instead of these 
instincts being retained by us alongside of our intellectual 
developments, they have chiefly been displaced by the latter. 
Naturally, choosing between instinct and intellect, the latter is 
the higher gift. Some of our original instincts we still retain, 
and they serve us and protect 11s in many matters, but for the 
most part we depend upon the power of thought. The dog will 
sometimes turn around two or three times before lying down 
upon a smooth, soft rug, just as his wild and wolfish progenitor 
once did in order to make himself a comfortable bed when lying 
down to sleep in tall grass or deep snow; but we do not do such 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


129 


unintelligent things. We learn to use our minds in these 
matters and just here is the secret of our protracted infancy— 
we have to learn to use our minds and to reason. The animal 
finds himself in full possession of his instincts at his birth. But 
having largely lost our instincts, each individual human being 
is compelled to build up his own mental machinery, or rather 
to train it as he does his muscles, and this takes time. If, like 
many animals, we grew to maturity in a very few years, we 
should be incapable of the high development of nerve tissue 
and mind that makes us what we are. 

Our slow physical growth, corresponding with the develop¬ 
ment of the mind, is quite in line with the refinement of our 
tissue structures, their vitality and enduring quality. A 
creature of cruder structure might mature in a fraction of the 
time required for us. However, our prolonged period of 
growth is in accord with the usual rule among other animals 
that the period of physical growth varies with the varying life¬ 
spans of the different species, and according to which an animal 
that matures in twenty years is likely to live five times longer 
than that which reaches full size and strength in four years. 

The deepest minds and the highest mental gifts are not 
always likely to manifest themselves very early in life, and may 
not assert their full strength and power until some time after 
physical maturity has been reached. The parent, therefore, 
should not feel concerned if his child is not so precocious as 
that of his neighbor, for precocity does not mean anything, one 
way or the other. We sometimes read of incredible precocity 
in the eulogistic biographies of some great men (more fre¬ 
quently musicians and “geniuses”), but probably in the greater 
number of cases they do not startle their folks with their excep¬ 
tional qualities in their more tender years. We do know that 
many of our most successful men have seemed to be almost 
stupid during their school days, though even this may mean 
nothing more than a reflection upon or criticism of our unsatis¬ 
factory school methods. 

When one considers the requirements of slow growth upon 
the part of the human brain, the common attempt to force the 

Vol. 1—10 




130 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


education of children is little short of criminal. The develop¬ 
ment of the mind should he a growth, and not a cramming in 
from the outside . It should be the natural unfolding of that 
which is in each individual, and not the attempt to “store away” 
innumerable silly and useless facts. The brain of the child does 
not reach its full growth until about the age of seven years, 
after which it grows very little, if any, in size. Every one has 
noted the large size of the head of a boy, for his size, compared 
with that of a full grown man. After the age of seven years 
this brain is ready for a certain amount of study, if necessary, 
or training, but before that time any such attempts, or, at least, 
any forcing, is almost sure to be detrimental. Later on we shall 
learn something of the structure of this brain. 

In the succeeding chapters we shall consider specially and 
in detail the various wonders of the body, the remarkable and 
ingenious framework which gives support to the whole and 
protection to the vital parts, the elaborate, beautiful and 
infinitely capable muscular system and the remarkable delicacy 
and efficiency of the important internal organs. We shall see 
how all of these separate parts work together harmoniously 
to produce a complete and perfect whole. We shall observe 
the splendid mechanism of the heart and entire circulatory 
system, how the blood is made and how it is purified, and caused 
to penetrate and circulate through the most remote tissues of 
the body, even the bones themselves, noting also how shrewdly 
Nature for the most part has placed the arteries deeply within 
the various members so that they may be less susceptible to 
injury, allowing only the veins to run along the surface where 
necessary, and, in the very few parts where the arteries are not 
deeply located, having them so placed that they are the least 
liable to be torn or opened by accident. 

We shall study the structure and operations of the organs 
of assimilation, by the aid of which all manner of food and 
liquid substances are actually converted into the materials and 
tissues of which the body is composed. Surely, this, when we 
stop to consider it, is far more mystifying and miraculous than 
any feat of magic or witchery that was ever told of in story. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


131 


We shall see how we depend upon the action of the lungs in 
supplying the life-sustaining oxygen and in freeing the body 
from carbonic acid; we shall see how the other wastes of our 
various tissues are depurgated through the effective service of 
the kidneys and the pores of the skin; and we shall observe 
what we can of the marvellous mechanism of those important 
organs by means of which we sense our position and relation 


with the outer world, by which 
objects, to hear the noises they 
smell their odors, and to taste 
of those which are suitable for 
food, these faculties of smell¬ 
ing and tasting, indeed, ena¬ 
bling us to determine just 
what is desirable for food. 

And fundamentally more 
important than all the rest, we 
shall consider the wonders of 
the nervous system, the domi¬ 
nating and most vital factor of 
the whole, the part that thinks, 
the part that feels, the part 
that determines what every 
other part of the body shall 
do. Surely, if the human 
“sour’ is localized in any part, 
its special habitation is the 
nervous system. It shall he 
our privilege to contemplate 
from a physical or physiologi¬ 
cal standpoint, the mysterious 
organization and functions of 
the brain, the organ of the 
mind, the seat of intellect, the 
home of conscious thought. 
We shall take note of the in¬ 
credible powers of the spinal 


we are able to see all external 
make, if any, to feel them, to 



Photograph of the nervous system made 
by articulating every nerve of human 
body in approximately the same position 
as in life. 






132 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


cord, the center of the elaborate and complex organization of 
nerves which penetrate every minutest particle of every tissue 
of the entire body, instantly telegraphing, as it were, to the 
central governing body, the news of the condition, welfare and 
experiences of each part, on the one hand, arid, on the other, 
carrying to each and every part instructions as to just what to 
do. Never was there another so perfect a system of intelli¬ 
gence transmission, for these nerves never make a mistake. 

But with all the incomparable delicacy and refinement of 
organization of these various organs, systems and tissues of 
the body, they possess a strength and a power of resistance that 
would be utterly astonishing were it not such a commonplace 
fact of everyday life. Indeed, the very strength and enduring 
power of the body is the result of this minuteness and refine¬ 
ment of structure. 

Not the least wonderful thing about this unique body- 
machine of ours is its almost unlimited power of self-regulation, 
of recuperating its own wasted forces and of mending itself 
when it is injured. Like any complex machine, the body may 
suffer some disorder or injury as the result of exceptional strain 
or violence, but, unlike anj^ ordinary machine, it repairs itself. 
If any part be broken, or torn, or cut (any part with the excep¬ 
tion of the nerves), the body sets about in a most remarkable 
and systematic way to mend it, sending an exceptional supply 
of blood and new building material to the affected part. With 
the activities of each day we use up a good part of the available 
energy of the body and consume a greater or less amount of 
the bodily tissues (largely muscular) ; but even as this is done 
the organs and fluids of the body are at work rebuilding new 
tissue and energy. And at night, when the deficit of energy, 
the breaking down or consumption of cell tissue, and the 
accumulation of the waste matter so produced becomes suffi¬ 
ciently great to cause decided fatigue and inconvenience, then 
the work of repair is carried on in a far more rapid and effec¬ 
tive manner through the revitalizing processes of sleep, 
“Nature’s sweet restorer.” 

Similarly, when, through mistaken habits of life, and the 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


133 


failure, through ignorance or otherwise, to observe the condi¬ 
tions of health which Nature has laid down for us, some of the 
organs and functions of the body become deranged and the 
condition of the blood impaired, or, in other words, we contract 
“disease,” then, even then, in the same way, the self-mending 
and recuperating powers of the body assert themselves and 
endeavor in the most wonderful way to restore a normal condi¬ 
tion. Unless impeded or handicapped too much, the body will 
usually accomplish this result without outside help. But in 
cases where the condition of ill-health is serious it is important 
to understand the construction and requirements of the body, 
and also the conditions of health which Nature imposes (fre¬ 
quently called “laws” of health), in order that the body may 
be able the more effectively to accomplish its purpose. As we 
have seen, the Science of Physcultopathy is devoted to this end. 

For though we are fearfully and wonderfully made, yet in 
many respects the functions of the body are not so mysterious 
as they may seem. We may know and understand much of 
them—indeed, should know these things in order the better to 
work for our own welfare. The fundamental mysteries and 
secrets of life we may not understand; just what life is we never 
will know; but that it is, we know, and many of the conditions 
of its best development and progress we may know, and these 
we wish to teach in these volumes. It is possible for us to 
know in a limited way the anatomy and functions of all parts 
of the body, the location, nature and actions of all important 
organs, and knowing these things, we may avoid their abuSe 
and neglect, so modifying and arranging our habits and con¬ 
ditions of life as to maintain them in health and vigor. People 
do not voluntarily choose to be sick, and for the most part 
illness is the ultimate result of ignorance along these lines, an 
ignorance which is as nearly universal among so-called civilized 
people as it is dangerous and unnecessary. 

What would we think of a man who owned and operated 
a complex and intricate machine of such value that he could not 
even compute its worth, but who placidly went about his way 
satisfied not to know anything of the construction and workings 




134 


MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


of his machine, so that he could keep it in good order? The 
thing is inconceivable, because men always take painstaking 
care of all machinery, and yet this is the situation of nearly 
every one with reference to his own body machine. If our 
systems of public education are to be worth anything, we should 
demand that our children be given the most complete and 
thorough instruction along these lines, including not only the 
intimate study of the anatomy and'physiology of the body, but 
also of all conditions and habits of life favorable and unfavor¬ 
able to its welfare. Surely, the knowledge of the height of the 
tallest mountain in Asia, or of the date of the birth of Confu¬ 
cius, is of little importance compared with the necessity for a 
knowledge of one’s own self. It is time that physiology is 
taught in the schools after a fashion, but considering the vital 
character of the subject it should be taken up in a manner 
infinitely more thorough, and with it should go the most abso¬ 
lute insistence upon those habits which are conducive to the 
very highest degree of health and energy. 

The man who is physically self-conscious, who “knows him¬ 
self,” as it were, and understands the character and functions 
of every part of himself, will see the very first danger-signs of 
the approach of disease. Not only will he know how to cope 
with trouble of any kind, but he will be so alert to his condition 
that he will be able to prevent its ever reaching him. If he has 
inherited special weaknesses and is threatened with any disease, 
he will not wait until he is caught in its throes, but will take the 
matter in hand so early that he will never develop the condition 
of body which makes it possible. He will increase his constitu¬ 
tional strength and powers of resistance, build up vitality, 
l purify his blood, improve his circulation and in every possible 
way make perfection of health inevitable. 

Before the forms or uses of the various portions of the body 
are studied, it is necessary to understand that the body as a 
whole is a compact mass of chemical compounds arranged 
according to a definite and unvarying scheme of Nature. 
These compounds are very numerous, indeed, but all are made 
up of differing combinations of the chemical elements that are 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


135 


found in the human body. These elements are thirteen in 
number, and are: Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, chlo¬ 
rine, fluorine, phosphorus, calcium, potassium, sodium, sulphur, 
magnesium, and iron. Some other elements, such as silicon and 
iodine, are found in the body, but in such insignificant quanti¬ 
ties that they need not be considered. 

The combinations of these elements, as found in the body, 
are divided into two chemical groups—the organic and the inor¬ 
ganic compounds. The organic compounds are those that con¬ 
tain carbon as one of the elements. The inorganic compounds 
are those that do not contain carbon. Thus albumen, which is 
composed of nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, sulphur and 
phosphorus, is an organic substance. Calcium phosphate, which 
makes up nearly sixty per cent, of the human bone, is composed 
of calcium, oxygen and phosphorus; having no carbon it is an 
inorganic compound. Broadly speaking, all of the substances 
that we are accustomed to regard as foods are made up of 
organic compounds. The carbon in them is burned in the body 
for the purpose of giving out bodily heat. These organic foods 
are divided into three classes, as follows: 

(1) Nitrogenous foods, commonly called proteids—Albu¬ 
men, fibrin, casein, gluten and gelatine. Albumen is found in 
its purest state in the white of egg; fibrin is the substance in 
blood that causes its coagulation when exposed to the air; casein 
is the valuable principle of cheese, and gluten of the grains; 
gelatine is obtained from the bones and the fibrous tissues of 
animals. 

(2) Fats—Animal and vegetable oils. The fats of meat, 
butter, olive oil, etc., are good samples. 

(3) The Carbohydrates—The starches, dextrin and sugars. 

Fats and carbohydrates contain no nitrogen and are there¬ 
fore called non-nitrogenous foods. For convenience sake, alco¬ 
hol, tea, coffee and cocoa are classed as non-nitrogenous foods, 
but are appropriately set in a class by themselves as stimulants. 
With the exception of cocoa, thefe is no real food value in the 
stimulants. 




136 


MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


The foregoing are all organic foods, but there are two 
classes of organic substances that are now known to be foods 
in the strict sense of the word, since it is necessary for the 
welfare of the body that they be supplied. These are the 
vegetable acids, such as acetic, citric, malic and tartaric; and 
such salts as sodium chloride (common salt), potassium chlo¬ 
ride, and the phosphates of calcium and of magnesium. It 
should be said that it is not necessary to use common salt in 
the customary manner, because it is contained in our ordinary 
foods. It is often removed, however, by the evils of improper 
cooking. Calcium carbonate, or lime is also needed. 
Water, an inorganic substance, composed of the two gases, 
hydrogen and oxygen, is absolutely necessary to the system, as 
it furnishes the solvent for carrying all of the food values in 
fluids, but water of itself cannot be classed as a food. 

All of the foods, organic and inorganic, that are needed in 
the body can be found without recourse to flesh foods, but milk, 
eggs and butter are animal products that are valuable as food. 
Cream and cheese, as well as butter, are to be included with 
milk. 

Protoplasm is the name given to the smallest mass of living 
matter that is to be found in the human body. It is found in 
all living bodies, but we are considering only those of human 
beings. Protoplasm is microscopic in size, is without structure 
or form, and is in appearance very much like the white of egg. 
It is a mixture, however, of several chemical substances, and 
both composition and appearance vary in different parts of the 
body. Protoplasm is found to exist in any part of a cell that 
has the properties of life; it has the power of absorbing nutri¬ 
ment, and of dividing and sub-dividing itself into new masses 
of protoplasm. And these infinitely tiny masses of protoplasm, 
when not needed where they are, for the building up of a tissue, 
have the wonderful power of moving themselves to other por¬ 
tions of the body where they may be needed. 

In the human body the little mass of protoplasm possesses a 
nucleus, or central body, for which reason it is called nucleated 
protoplasm. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 137 


Now we are brought to consider the cell. This is the small¬ 
est mass in the body which has a definite form. A cell is made 
up of masses of nucleated protoplasm, which it very much 
resembles. Somewhere in the mass of the cell, usually near the 
center, is a central body that is called the nucleus of the cell. 
On the meshes of the nucleus may be found an enlargement 
known as the nucleolus. A nucleus may contain several of these 
nucleoli, or none at all. Often the protoplasm at the outer edge 
of the cell may exist in such form that it virtually forms a cell 
wall, or cell-membrane. 

All of the tissues of the body, whether found in nerves, 
muscles, cartilage, bone, skin, etc., are made up of great num¬ 
bers of cells in mass. All life is maintained through these cells. 
The cells are constantly dying and are being replaced by new 
ones. Food is taken into the body in order that it may be 
converted into the nourishing fluids that are carried through 
the system to repair cells or to build new ones. It has been seen 
that protoplasm takes up this nutrient matter. It has been 
explained, too, that water is needed as the solvent to make these 
nourishing substances into fluids. Exercise is destructive of 
such of the cells as are all but worn out. Oxygen that comes 
into the blood through breathing burns out this waste, dying 
matter. The blood and other fluids of the body carry away 
this burned-out matter, to be cast out by the excreting and 
depurgating organs. 

Exercise not only helps to destroy the nearly worn-out cells 
throughout the exercised portions of the body, but it quickens 
the respiration through the demand for more oxygen with 
which to burn up the waste and dead matter. Much of the 
carbon brought away in the blood returning from the tissues 
to the lungs is consumed in the lungs, and is exhaled in the form 
of carbonic acid gas. Some of the waste is exuded fiom the 
pores of the skin in the form of perspiration, and bathing is 
resorted to in order to carry this waste away from the skin and 
to prevent the pores from becoming clogged up and thus 
sources of ill health. 

The burning of carbon in the body supplies animal heat. 





138 


MA CFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Proper clothing keeps as much of this heat in the body as is 
needed. Too much clothing keeps too much heat in the body. 
Exercise not only facilitates the removal of the waste that it 
causes in the body, but it brings about the rebuilding of the 
cells destroyed with newer, fresher, better material. This style 
of repair not only produces a finer quality of tissue, but gives 
to it also greater strength and size. If exercise merely resulted 
in replacing matter in the body with equivalent matter there 
would be little or no benefit in exercise. It is through the 
improved quality and increased quantity of cell matter supplied 
that exercise works its wonders. Even the bones of an adult 
may grow, though slowly, through exercise. 

If it were not that Nature has ordained that a time must 
come when decay will take place in the body more rapidly than 
repair can offset the destruction, it would be possible, generally 
speaking, for man to make himself immortal in this world 
through the right amount and kinds of exercise, proper breath¬ 
ing of pure air, sensible diet, the proper use of water inside and 
out and the right amounts and kinds of rest and clothing. As 
it is, by these aids man is so well able to prolong his life to a 
healthy and advanced old age that it may well be said in most 
cases that health is optional. 

As we have seen, the cell is the elementary structure, but a 
collection of these cells, united in such a way as to form a whole, 
is spoken of as a tissue. In using the word “tissue,” we often 
think of materials more or less interwoven, but in the human 
body it may mean simply a collection of cells placed side by 
side and cohering together in whatsoever manner. 

The tissues of the human body may be classified into five 
different kinds, namely: (1) Epithelial tissue; (2) Connective 
tissue; (3) Muscle tissue; (4) Nerve tissue; and (5) Blood and 
Lymph. All of these different kinds of tissue involve a differ¬ 
ent character and arrangement of cells. 

1. Epithelial tissue consists of cells placed very closely in 
contact, with very little cement substance interposed, and is 
found chiefly in three forms, (a) pavement epithelium, in which 
the cells form a plate-like substance, either thick or thin; (b) 




PLATE B 





v..~- 

1. lihe heart'. 

a. ViSlbbr portion 
the left ventricle. 

b. Right ventricle. 

c. Right auricle. 

2. Reft lung. 

3. Right lung. 

4. Pulmonary artery. 

5. Aortic arch. 

fi. Superior vena cava. 
7. Thyroid gland. 


8. Diaphragm; sending 
a broad ligament 
through the liver. 

9. Liver. 

10. Gail bladder. 

11. Spleen. 

12. Stomach. 

a. Cardiac opening. 

b. Pyloric opening. 

13. Small intestine. 

14. Descending colon. 


Front View, 
of 


View from the Rear. 

1. Right lung. 6. Inferior vena cava. 

2. Left lung. 7. Diaphragm. 

3. Esophagus. 8. Kidneys. 

4. Great aorta. 9. Peritoneum. 

5. Thoracic duct. 10. Rectum. 




General View 
of the Organs 
of the Chest 
and Abdomen. 


(Just above diaphragm.) 

1. Right lung. 

2. Left lung. 

3. Diaphragm. 

4. Apex of the heart. 

5. Pericardium. 

6. Inferior vena cava. 

7. Aorta. 

8. Esophagus. 

9. Pneumo-gastric nerve. 


Thoracic duct. 

11. Sympathetic nerves. 

12. Ninth vertebra and 
ribs. 

13. Eighth rib and spi¬ 
nous processes of the 
eighth vertebra. 

14-16. Seventeenth ’to 
fifth ribs. 

17-20. Muscles. 


Cross Section of 

(Beneath diaphragm.) 

1. Liver. 

2. Portal vein. 

3. Inferior vena cava. 

4. Aorta. 

5. Thoracic duct. 

6. Stomach. 

7. Spleen. 

8. Supra-renal gland. 

9. Nervus svmpathicus. 


the Abdomen. 

10. Diaphragm. 

11. Eleventh thoracic 
vertebra and its ribs. 

12. Tenth rib (a) and 
the spinous process 
(b) of the tenth rib. 

13-16. Ninth to the 
sixth rib. 

17-19. Muscles. 


Cross Section of the Chest, 

10 . 













OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


141 


cylindrical epithelium, the form being indicated by its name; 
and (c) ciliated epithelium, upright cells provided with the 
most minute hairs for certain purposes. 

Pavement epithelium may be found in several layers, a 
splendid example of its structure being found on the surface 
of the human body. Cylindrical epithelium lines the interior of 
the stomach, intestines and many other of the cavities of the 
body, while ciliated epithelium lines the inner surface of the 
greater part of the respiratory tract. In every case the epithe¬ 
lial layer serves as a protection for the tissues lying underneath, 
the latter being subject to injury whenever there is a break in 
the former. We are all familiar with the wonderfully protec¬ 
tive character of the skin, for instance. The epithelial cells are 
also to be found in the true glands of the body, lining all ducts 
and tubes. 

Indeed, the most primitive or simple type of gland is a mere 
tube, lined with epithelial cells. The secretion formed by the 
gland empties upon the epithelial surface, whereupon it finds its 
exit from the tube. A gland, we may say here, is an organ 
which secretes, that is to say, produces certain substances neces¬ 
sary for the proper functions and activities of the body. Ac¬ 
cording to the nature of these secretions the glands are called 
salivary glands, gastric glands, mucous glands, sweat glands, 
sebaceous, the liver, the pancreas, and so on. The simple gland 
just referred to, the single tiny tube, is so infinitesimal that it 
cannot be seen with the naked eye, requiring the use of a micro¬ 
scope. But it happens in many cases that a number of these lit¬ 
tle tubes unite to form a larger gland, the openings from these 
various tubes discharging their excretions into a common duct 
or outlet channel. This would be called a compound gland; 
the interior space, both of the tubes and the main duct, if filled 
in, would perhaps take the form of a microscopic tree. A gland 
of material size, like the larger ones that we shall speak of later, 
consists of many of these ducts, uniting to form a large common 
duct into which all the secretions are emptied, like the tributa¬ 
ries of a stream. All these ducts of the glands, and their tiny 
tributaries, are lined with the epithelial cells. The lymph 




142 MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


glands, which we will refer to later, do not secrete in the true 
sense, are not supplied with excretory ducts, and are not to be 
confused with the true glands. 

(2) The term Connective tissue includes several tissues of 
the human body, whether to support parts of the body or to 
embed various organs. There are four chief classifications: (a) 
Connective tissue proper; (b) Fatty tissue; (c) Cartilage; and 
(d) Bone. 

(a) Connective tissue proper consists of cells embedded in 
a comparatively large amount of ground-substance, which has 
a remarkably fibrous structure. These fibers are generally 
arranged in bundles or bands, in two varieties—loose and firm 
connective tissue. 

Loose connective tissue is more elastic and more easily dis¬ 
placed, its separate fibers or bundles being arranged in wider 
meshes, like a mass of loose woolen thread. It is to be found 
where certain organs are close to each other but yet are mov¬ 
able. A certain amount is placed between the different mus¬ 
cles so that they may contract and move without friction. 
Loose connective tissue is found underneath the skin, and in 
greater quantities in those parts where the skin can be picked 
up in folds. If we could maintain this connective tissue in 
more perfect condition with advancing years we might avoid 
much of the appearance of age, as in the face, for instance. 
Vigorous health and an active circulation, therefore, are very 
efficacious in this direction. Loose connective tissue forms a 
light gray mass, and may be seen in the meat of animals, sepa¬ 
rating or lying between the red masses of muscle. 

Firm connective tissue consists of similar fibers or bundles 
placed very closely together or interwoven. We will remem¬ 
ber this later when we speak of the tendons which attach the 
muscles to the bones, for these tendons are good examples of 
firm connective tissue, as are also the ligaments which reinforce 
the bony framework and hold it together. The important 
membranes of the body, chiefly protective agencies, are also 
composed of connective tissue, more or less firm, in which the 
fibers usually run in all directions. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


143 


The fibrous matter of connective tissue consists of gelatine. 
When boiled in water it dissolves finally to a jelly-like mass, 
which, on cooling, forms a thick, firm jelly. Those who cook 
and eat meat are familiar with it. Much of the glue of com¬ 
merce is manufactured from the hoofs and horns of cattle, and 
other parts rich in connective tissue. 

(b) Fatty tissue is a form of connective tissue in the cells 
of which large amounts of fat have been distributed, so that 
the cells are round like balls. Normally, a certain amount of it 
is valuable as a reserve deposit of nourishment. Among wild 
animals who hibernate or for other reasons are sometimes de¬ 
prived of food for a time, the storing up of fat is a wise pro¬ 
vision. Not only is fat useful to produce heat in the body in 
winter, but it is a poor conductor, and prevents the internal 
organs from having their heat too rapidly dissipated when the 
body is exposed to chilling air. In cold water, it is the man with 
a fair supply of fat who is able to swim the longest without in¬ 
convenience or injury. At the same time, the fat man will 
suffer most in summer, since the heat of his own body can less 
easily find an outlet. 

Fatty tissue, furthermore, acts as a cushion and support for 
delicate organs, which without this protection might be fre¬ 
quently injured. The eye proper lies in a soft cushion of 
fatty tissue, and the kidneys are likewise embedded in layers 
of it. So we see that this form of tissue is really indispensable, 
although we all dread an excess of it. 

(c) Cartilage also consists of a certain proportion of cells, 
but embedded in a firm, translucent ground-substance, which, 
while giving firmness, also possesses a certain degree of flexi¬ 
bility and ductility. It has a bluish-transparent shimmer, look¬ 
ing something like porcelain. If you want to feel a good ex¬ 
ample of cartilage, feel the end of your nose. The bone of the 
nose comes about half way down the bridge, and the tip, some¬ 
what flexible, is given its character by a formation of cartilage. 
You can feel how firm it is, and yet how ductile. It will not 
break readily, as will hone, under strain or violence. It is 
found throughout the body wherever a certain amount of sup- 




144 


MAC FAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


port is required, without loss of this ductility. The front 
ends of the ribs are of cartilage, to permit of the movements 
of the ribs in breathing. There is usually much cartilage, 
also, about the joints, to reinforce them and to provide against 
friction. We shall later observe the indispensable character 
and use of cartilage in the wonderful structure of the spine, in 
which nothing else could provide the same cushion-like quality 
combined with strength and support. In some cases many 
elastic fibers are embedded in the ground-substance, as in the 
cartilage of the ear, making it unusually elastic. 

(d) Bone, in spite of its hardness, is only a form of con¬ 
nective tissue, consisting of cells which lie in a ground-substance 
composed very largely of phosphate and carbonate of lime. 
We shall consider its character in more detail in the next 
chapter. 

The other tissues of the body, (3) Muscle tissue, (4) Nerve 
tissue, and (5) Blood and Lymph, will be considered in other 
chapters dealing especially with them. If it should seem strange 
that we classify blood and lymph as among the tissues of the 
body, in spite of their fluid character, then it may be said that 
they consist of cells suspended in a fluid ground-substance and 
may properly be included in this classification. 

In the succeeding chapters we shall not attempt to con¬ 
sider exhaustively every minute detail of every nook and corner 
of the body, for that would take years to accomplish, and a 
library greater than any man could read through in a lifetime. 
We propose, however, to give a clear, general understanding 
of the make-up of the body and a practical working knowledge 
of its functions. Aside from hair-splitting details, the care¬ 
ful student will secure from these pages almost as good a 
knowledge of the important facts of his make-up as those 
whose profession it is to know these things. I have simply 
offered this information in a terse and practical form, so that 
the student of Physcultopathy will be able to go ahead in¬ 
telligently with the study of the succeeding volumes. 




CHAPTER V. 

THE BODY’S WONDERFUL FRAMEWORK. 

W HAT the steel framework is to the modern “sky¬ 
scraper” building, the skeleton is to the human 
body, only much more. The steel structure of a 
thirty-story building is rigid and immovable, designed only to 
support the weight of the whole, but the skeleton, while giving 
stability and support to every part of the human body, and 
protection to the most vital parts, is at the same time so wonder¬ 
fully devised as to permit of every possible movement. 

Most of us perhaps do not realize what a truly remarkable 
piece of work is this skeleton of the human body from a struc¬ 
tural standpoint. Some may consider it ugly in itself, but it 
is so designed that when normally and perfectly filled out with 
flesh and blood, with the various organs, muscles and tissues of 
the body, the entire completed structure is the most exquisitely 
beautiful creation in the world. It is impossible to conceive or 
imagine how it could be better or more perfectly arranged to 
fulfill the purposes of life and strength and movement. Just 
think of the resisting power of the bones of the body, a strength 
like that of steel. The bones of a single man have been known 
to uphold the weight of several horses, and of a giant automo¬ 
bile filled with people. Such are the extreme possibilities of the 
human skeleton. At the same time think of its wondrous mo¬ 
bility, the ease and freedom of movement of every part being 
such that ordinarily we forget that there are bones or rigid 
members within ourselves. We can move every part almost 
any way we choose, the articulation of the joints and hinges of 
the body being so smooth and perfect that they seem absolutely 
without friction, except perhaps in extreme age. 

This framework of all the bones of the body, taken together, 
is known as the skeleton. In this simple yet wonderful struc¬ 
ture there is not a false touch. The tiniest bone has its place, 
and the human body cannot be perfect without it. In the 
normal body each bone is just as strong as it needs to be— 

145 



\ 


Front View of the Skeleton. 

1. Frontal. 

2. Parietal. 

3. Temporal. 

4. Superior maxillary. 

5. Inferior maxillary. 

6. Cervical vertebrae. 

7. Humerus. 

8. Radius. 

9. Ulna. 

10. Hand bones. 

11. Clavicle. 

12. Sternum. 

13. Xiphoid process. 

14. True ribs. 

15. False ribs. 

16. Thoracic vertebrae. 

17. Lumbar vertebrae. 

18. Sacrum. 

19. Ilium. 

19a. Ischium of pelvis c 
19b. Pubis of pelvis. 

20. Femur. 

21. Patella. 

22. Tibia. 

23. Fibula. 

24. Foot bones. 




146 














Rear View of the Skeleton. 

1. Occipital. 

2. Parietal. 

3. Temporal. 

4. Malar. 

5. Inferior maxilla. 

6. Cervical vertebrae. 

7. Thoracic vertebrae. 

8. Lumbar vertebrae. 

9. Sacrum. 

10. Coccyx. 

11. Clavicle. 

12. Scapula. 

13. True ribs. 

14. False ribs. 

15. Ilium. 

16. Ischium. 

17. Humerus. 

18. Radius. 

19. Ulna. 

20. Hand bones. 

21. Femur. 

22. Tibia. 

23. Fibula. 

24. Foot bone3. 



Vol. 1—11 


147 






118 


MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


neither more nor less. It is in its exact place, and works in 
perfect harmony with the other bones. 

We all of us know, or will realize, that the bones grow in 
the earlier years of life. It is apparent at once that the child s 
bones must increase in size. The bones of the body undergo 
just as incessant change, at all times in life, as do the fleshy or 
muscular tissues or the nerves. Bones are made up of cells, 
just as flesh is, and these cells are constantly going through 
the same processes of birth, growth, decay and death as do the 
fleshy cells. Cells of the bones may be increased in size, number 
and in health just as are the other cells of the body. The only 
difference is that the cells that make up the bony structure go 
through their processes more slowly than do the cells in the 
fleshy parts. 

As we have already seen, bone tissue is a form of connective 
tissue, its cells being embedded in a ground-substance of 
extreme hardness because of the large percentage of phosphate 
of lime and carbonate of lime. The cells themselves are star¬ 
shaped, with many little projections not unlike the legs of a 
many-legged bug, these projections serving to connect each cell 
with its neighbors. 

In the adult, the bones are made up two-thirds of this 
mineral matter, and perhaps one-third of animal matter, chiefly 
the gelatine, which is characteristic of all the fibrous matter in 
the various connective tissues. The bones of babies are nearly 
all of gelatine, or, in other words, they are largely cartilaginous, 
being therefore so pliable that they do not break easily. As 
they grow older the percentage of mineral matter is increased, 
but throughout all childhood the bones continue to be suffi¬ 
ciently pliable to avoid breaking easily. As age approaches 
the gelatine gives way almost entirely to the mineral matter, 
causing the bones to become extremely brittle. The more active 
one’s habits, the better his health and circulation, the more 
perfect will be the condition of his bones to the very last. Stag¬ 
nant habits and poor health will hasten these characteristics of 
age. 

The disease known as rickets } among poorly nourished chil- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


149 


dren, and most common in the slumming districts of our great 
cities, is purely the result of a deficiency of the deposit of these 
salts, of lime in the bones. If the truth be known, however, it 
is not so much the result of insufficient feeding, even among 
the poor, as of ignorance as to just what kind of food to give 
the children. The remedy for rickets is to be found in more 
perfect nutrition and plenty of opportunity for active outdoor 
play. 

The living bone is covered with a delicate yet extremely 
tough membrane known as the periosteum. This membrane is 
intricately equipped with blood vessels that nourish the bone. 
Another function of the periosteum is to protect the bone as 
much as possible from shocks and jars. Let a portion of the 
periosteum be injured, and the bone contiguous to the injury 
will suffer disease and decay. So wonderfully vital to the pro¬ 
cesses of the bone is the periosteum that where pieces of the 
bone have been removed without injury to the periosteum the 
bony tissue has been known to grow again to full health—a 
secret of Nature’s of which surgeons have taken advantage in 
the performance of some seemingly wonderful operations on 
bones. 

Yet not bv any means all of the nourishment of the bone 
comes through the periosteum. Any long bone, if cut so that 
the cross section may be examined, reveals the fact that the 
hard, ivory-like substance with 
which we are all familiar does 
not extend throughout the 
thickness of the bone. Inside 
of the hard outer shell is a 
softer substance called the 
cancellous tissue. This is 
sponge-like, somewhat hard 
near the shell, and becoming 
by gradual transition softer 
and softer as we go toward the 
center of the bone. This in¬ 
ner, softer part of the bone 



Cross Section of Bone. 

(Highly magnified.) 

1. Haversian canal. 

2. Lamellae. 

3. Canaliculi. 





150 


MAC FAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


forms what is known as the medullary canal, the canal being 
employed to carry nourishment to every portion of the bone in 
conjunction with the work of the periosteum. This canal is 
filled with a yellow, fat-like pulp to which we give the name of 
marrow, and which is thickly supplied with blood vessels. The 
whole interior of the bone is a complicated system of canals; in 
many of the bones is found an especially large canal known as 
the nutrient foramen, and this protects the main artery that 
carries nourishment throughout the structure, branching off 
into more and more minute arteries. 

In the flat bones, on the other hand, we find two thin plates 
of the harder material, with the spongy or cancellous tissue 
between them. The short and irregular bones have the cancel¬ 
lous tissue, but there is no medullary canal. When a thin 
section of bone is seen under the microscope a great many open¬ 
ings are detected in the cancellous tissue. These are the open¬ 
ings of channels that are called the Haversian canals, after their 
discoverer. These run the length of the bone, and contain 
myriads of the minutest blood vessels. All around these canals 
is a thick network of tiny cavities known as the lacunae, which 
contain bone-cells, while wonderfully small canals—infinitely 
smaller than hairs—connect the Haversian canals with the 
lacunae. 

There is no medullary canal at the end of a long bone; it 
ends in cancellous (spongy) tissue with a very thin shell. 

It is a curious fact that there are more bones in the infant’s 
body than in that of the adult. Thus, there are twenty-two 
bones in the skull of a man of thirty; in the infant there are 
more, in order to permit of the growth of the skull and of the 
brain that it encloses. As adult age is neared some of the sepa¬ 
rate bones knit together. By the time old age is reached this 
process has gone even further, and there are less than twenty- 
two bones in the skull. The same peculiarity is noted in the 
sacrum and the coccyx at the base of the spine, and at some 
other points in the body. There are, in all, two hundred distinct 
bones proper in the frame of the adult. 

Besides the various large and small openings in the bones 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


151 


by which the blood vessels and nerves penetrate and leave them, 
there are numerous projections and irregularities on the surface 
by means of which the various muscles are more securely 
attached. 

The skull is the name of the group of bones contained in the 
head, these serving not merely for support, but, what is even 
more important in the case of the brain, as a means of protec¬ 
tion. The skull may be divided into two sections, the cranium 
and the face . The cranium is a truly wonderful structure, con¬ 
sidering the protection which it affords and its moderate size. 
With all the strength and hardness of the hones of the cranium 
they yet have a certain elastic quality which makes them far 
more effective as a means of protection, as in the case of a blow 
on the head. 

The arched or upper part of the skull is known as the vault J 
whereas the lower portion is called the base of the skull, being 
very irregular, and provided with many projections and 
openings. 

The front of the vault is made up by the frontal bone, back 
of this, side by side, and forming the large middle of the vault 
are the two parietal bones; and behind, forming also the pos¬ 
terior portion of the base, is the occipital bone. Here, in the 
base of the skull, is found a large round opening (the foramen 
magnum) through which the spinal cord passes into the brain. 
On each side of the skull are the temporal bones, forming chiefly 
the lateral walls, and on the lower sides of which are the open¬ 
ings leading to the mechanism of the ears. Behind these, and 
pointing downward, is an important projection known as the 
mastoid process, to which is attached the strongest muscle of the 
neck, the sternocleidomastoid. This mastoid process also con¬ 
tains a number of cavities which communicate with the middle 
ear. There is serious trouble when inflammation of the ear 
spreads to these cavities. 

The malar bones, usually known as the cheek bones, are 
found below and at the side of the orbits. They are connected 
with the temporal bones by means of a narrow aich of bone, the 
zygomatic arch, the horizontal ridge of bone which can be felt 




152 


MA C FA DDE N 3 S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


with the fingers just under the temples. The two nasal bones 
give shape to the upper part of the nose, that of the lower part 
being determined by cartilage. ' Beneath the malar and nasal 
bones is the large upper jaw, constituting the greater part of 
the framework of the face, and containing the upper teeth. 
This upper jaw really consists of several bones known as the 
superior maxillae, entering into the formation of the walls of 
the cavities of the nose, mouth and orbit. They, of course, 
have small foramina for the transmission of the nerves of the 
teeth and other important nerves. 

The lower jaw, or inferior maxilla, the only movable bone 
in the head, consists of two bones at birth, which unite at the 
chin into a single bone during the first year of life. It forms 
the lower part of the face, and consists of a horseshoe-shaped 
body from the ends of which two branches extend upward, 



these latter branches possess¬ 
ing articular processes which 
connect with the temporal 
bones by means of the tern- 
poro-maxillary joint. This is 
the “hinge” upon which the 
jaw works when we open and 
close the mouth. 


Front View of Skull. 

1. Frontal. 

2. Parietal. 

3. Sphenoid. 

4. Temporal. 

5. Malar. 

6. Nasal 

7. Nasal septum. 

8. Superior maxilla. 

9. Inferior maxilla. 


The orbital cavities for the 
eyes are very pronounced, but 
for general purposes it is not 
necessary to know in detail all 
of the small accessory bones. 
Between the orbital cavities is 
the nasal cavity, divided by a 
partition into two sections, 
known as the left and right 
nasal fossa. From the lateral 
walls of these project three 
shell-like processes, the so- 
called turbinate bones of the 
nose. The floor of the nasal 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


153 


cavity is formed by the hard palate, this also forming the fore 
part of the roof of the mouth. 

Beginning with the trunk, we tak,e up, first of all, the bones 
of the spine, or “back-bone.” It is impossible to conceive of 
a more wonderful bit of machinery, since, in one way and 
another, it dominates all the functions of the body, and all 
other portions of the skeleton are made subservient to it. This 
spinal column is made of separate bones; there are seven that 
belong to the neck, and are known as cervical vertebrae; below 
are twelve vertebra that belong to the back and support the 
ribs, and these are known as dorsal vertebra; the five lowest 
vertebrae, belonging to the loins, are known as the lumbar 


vertebra. 

It is most important that 
the student should thoroughly 
learn and remember the names 
and locations of these various 
groups of vertebra, with their 
numbers, because of the im¬ 
portance of locating thereby 
the various spinal nerve cen¬ 
ters later, in the study of the 
nervous system. It is more im¬ 
portant to have a knowledge 
of the bones of the spine than 
of any other part of the human 
skeleton. 

While the bones of the 
spinal column differ slightly in 
shape, according to location, 
the general structure of one 
vertebra is like that of an¬ 
other. On page 38 may be 
noted the atlas, or uppermost 
of the cervical vertebrae. It is 
upon this atlas that the head 



Base of Skull. 

1. Palatal portion of the superior maxilla. 

2. Facial portion of the superior maxilla. 

3. Palate bones. 

4. Sphenoid. 

5. Vomer. 

6. Temporal. 

7. Petrous portion of the Temporal. 

8-9. Occipital. 

10. Foramen magnum. 

11. Posterior nares. 

12. Styloid process of temporal. 

13. Malar. 

14. Parietal. 

15. Condyles. 




154 


MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


rests. A central cavity, a forame'n , is shown, and this fora¬ 
men is repeated in each of the vertebras, thus forming a 
canal through which the spinal cord passes. This spinal 
cord is the master nerve of the body, controlling the entire 
nervous system. Between each two adjoining bones are 
openings through which branch nerves pass out to all por¬ 
tions of the body. 

Between each pair of vertebrae are cushions of cartilage. 
These hold the spine together, soften jars, prevent friction of 
the bones, and give the needed elasticity to the spine. Car¬ 
tilage thus performs 
here the same ser¬ 
vice that it does in 
other portions of the 
body. In meat we 
are familiar with 
the appearance, and 
somewhat familiar 
with the structure of cartilage 
under the common name of 
“gristle.” 

At the base of the spinal col¬ 
umn is a most important but 
little-heard-of bone, known as 
the sacrum, or sacred bone. 
It is a three-sided, wedge- 
shaped affair that gives some 
support to the spinal column. 
It is wedged between the hip¬ 
bones in such manner that it 

Vertebrae w pj be seen t() f orm tbe 

stone of the pelvis. The sac¬ 
rum terminates in a series of 
little bones, known under the 
name of coccyx. 

When the head moves for- 



The 


Spine With the 
Numbered. 

(At the lower end are shown the 
sacrum and coccyx.) 

There are 7 cervical, 12 dorsal and 
6 lumbar vertebrae. 

A. Flat view of a vertebra, showing 
the foramen, or canal through which 
the spinal cord passes. 

1. Posterior arch. 

2. Anterior arch. 

3-4. Articulating surfaces. 

B. A side view of a vertebra. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


155 


ward or backward, it moves on the axis, and the ligaments 
prevent it from moving too far. When the head is turned 
from side to side the skull and atlas pivot on a bony peg on the 
top of the axis or second cervical vertebra, and here again 
ligaments prevent the head from making a complete turn 
around. 

The spinal column is the base of many of the important 
muscles of the trunk; and especially of those that aid in keep¬ 
ing the body erect. On the whole, the spinal column possesses 
almost incredible strength, considering its divided character 
and the amount of cartilage making up a part of its structure. 

Beginning at the base of the neck in front, the sternum or 
breast-bone runs downward. This bone has a most important 
function supporting the ribs, as it does, in the front of the 
body. From the necessities of its office the sternum is tough 
and elastic at the same time. It is rarely fractured by a blow 
in the breast, having as it does great resistant power and great 
power to bend before a blow. When a fracture of the sternum 
does occur it is a very serious matter for the victim. 

The seven uppermost ribs 
since they all connect directly, 
on both sides of the body, with 
the sternum. The next three 
ribs, on either side, are known 
as “false ribs”; they do not 
touch the sternum, but are 
connected with it through 
other ribs, and by connection 
of cartilage. The lower two 
ribs on either side are called 
“floating ribs,” for the reason 
that their forward ends are not 
in any way associated with the 
sternum. All of the ribs pro¬ 
ceed from the dorsal vertebrae. 

Considering the importance 


are known as the “true ribs,” 



Sternum and ribs, the latter number¬ 
ed, branching sideways from head of 
sternum, the clavicle, or collar bone. 







156 


MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


of the hip-bones in the skeleton structure of the body, it may 
seem odd that anatomists have given to them the name “ossa 
innominata,” which means “unnamed bones.” Much more 
expressive was the old Anglo-Saxon name, “haunch bones . 9 
The shape of these bones is oddly irregular; at first glance 
their appearance conveys an idea of awkwardness. But the 
bones are ideally shaped for the work that they have to per¬ 
form. On the inside edges these two bones are joined firmly 
together, but the sacrum is wedged into place between them. 
The hip-bones, sacrum and coccyx form the framework of the 
pelvis, or pelvic basin, of the trunk. It will be noted that there 
are no bones in the front or anterior portion of the lower trunk, 

the abdomen being without a 
framework protection, since it 
needs none. 

There is a notable distinction 
between the male and female 
pelvis, suited to the bodily re¬ 
quirements of each. The female 
pelvis, suited to the requirements 
of maternity, is considerably 
broader and not so high, where¬ 
as that of the male, perhaps de¬ 
signed for the greatest possibili¬ 
ties in the way of strength, is higher and more narrow. 

On the outer edge of each os innominatum is a cup-like 
socket, into which fits the rounded head of the femur, or thigh¬ 
bone, the long and solitary bone of the upper half of the leg. 
The articulations of the joints of the arms and legs, and the 
part played by the shoulder-blade and the clavicle, or collar¬ 
bone, will be explained later. 

Breaks or fractures are common accidents to bones, and 
require prompt surgical attention if the bone is to be restored 
to something like its former health. We have a simple frac¬ 
ture when a bone is broken in a single place; it is a comminuted 
fracture when the hone is broken in two or more places. Occa¬ 
sionally a hone is broken in such fashion that a splintered end 



Scapula or Shoulder Blade. 

1. The spinous ridge. 

2. The smooth surface over which 
trapezius muscle moves. 

3. Acromion process. 

4. Coracoid process. 

5. Glenoid cavity. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


157 


punctures the periosteum, the soft flesh and the skin. This is 
known as a compound fracture; it is always a serious bit of 
business, and calls for surgical skill out of the ordinary, since, 
if the periosteum be not restored to perfect health and whole¬ 
ness, the bone near the fracture is certain to deteriorate and 
decay. 

In the appearance of the structure of the shoulder-blade 
there is much of similarity with the hip-bone; and, indeed, the 
shoulder-blade performs a very similar office in providing a 
hinge from which a limb may hang and act. 

This shoulder-blade, or scapula, as anatomists term it, is 
triangular in form. It forms the back portion of the shoulder 
girdle, which is composed of the scapula arid of the clavicle, or 
collar-bone. 

The scapula begins at about the level of the first dorsal or 
thoracic vertebra, and extends down about to the level of the 
seventh dorsal vertebra. In some skeletons the scapula is 
found to extend as low as the eighth dorsal vertebra. The 
inner edge of the scapula is close to the spinal column, and 
runs nearly parallel to it, being at a greater distance from the 
column at the lower end than at the upper. To a great extent 
the scapula is held in place by the muscles, ligaments and 
cartilages that bind it in its place. The clavicle, or collar¬ 
bone, has also much to do with keeping the scapula in place. 

Along the back or posterior surface of the upper portion of 
the scapula runs a ridge of bone that is known as the scapula 
spine. This spine terminates in a winding, irregular bone that 
projects out beyond the scapula proper, and this projecting 
bone is known as the acromion process. It forms the posterior 
guard to the glenoid cavity. Running from the anterior side of 
the upper scapula, and somewhat in line with the acromion 
process, is the coracoid process, a projection of bone which 
forms the anterior or front guard of the glenoid cavity. 

The glenoid cavity itself is a shallow, cup-like hollow at the 
upper, outer end of the scapular triangle. Into this hollow 
fits with great nicety the smoothly-rounded head of the 
humerus, or bone of the upper arm. This gives us an ideal 




158 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ball-and-socket joint, which renders possible the great freedom 
of movement of the arm from the shoulder. 

But there is yet one more essential in this shoulder move¬ 
ment, and it is to meet this necessity that the clavicle exists. 
The clavicle articulates with the manubrium, or head of the 
sternum (breast-bone), being attached to a depression at the 
side of the manubrium. The clavicle, long, slender and bend¬ 
ing, extends out past the scapula, attaching to 
the upper edge of the acromion process. Thus 
the clavicle helps to hold the scapula, and inci¬ 
dentally the arm, in place. The 
clavicle prevents the scapula 
from moving too far back¬ 
ward, and, at the same time, 
keeps the shoulders from com¬ 
ing too close together, thus 
forcing the arms well out and 
giving them greater liberty of 
•movement and execution. 

Study the peculiar forma¬ 
tion of the humerus, or upper 
arm-bone at the joint of the 
elbow, as it is illustrated on 
pages 30 and 31. In the 
shoulder we have found the 
ball-and-socket joint, but here 
at the elbow we have still an¬ 
other kind, known as the hinge 
joint, so called from the fact 
that it allows forward and 
backward movements. 

It will be seen that the 
heads of the ulna and of the 
radius furnish sockets into 
which projections from the 
base of the humerus fit, form- 


of 


Bones of Arm. 

1. Ball head 
humerus that fits 
into glenoid cavity. 

2. Shaft of hu¬ 
merus. 

3. Base of hu¬ 
merus. 

4. Cup in head of 
radius. 

5. Cup at head of 
ulna. 

Note.—The wrist 
is turned, which 
accounts for rela¬ 
tive positions of 
ulna and radius at 
their bases. 


Bones of Left Leg. 

1. Head of femur. 

2. Shaft of fe¬ 
mur. 

3. Outer condyle. 

4. Shaft of tibia. 

5. Shaft of fibula. 

6. Base of tibia. 

7. Base of fibula. 








OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


159 


ing the perfect hinge that Nature designed. The ulna is the 
larger bone of the forearm. It is aided by the radius, which is 
the shorter bone on the same side of the arm as the thumb. The 
radius is so called because it is articulated with the wrist-bones 
and permits the radiation, or turning, of the wrist. 

When we come to the skeleton of the hand we find it to be 
divided into three groups of bones. These are: (1) The carpus, 
or wrist; (2) the metacarpus, or bones of the palm; (3) the 
phalanges or fingers. There are twenty-seven separate bones 
in the hand; of these eight are carpal, five are metacarpal, and 
there are fourteen phalanges—three in each of the fingers and 


two in the thumb. 

It will be noted that 
of them very short, form in 
two rows, which fact gives 
greater flexibility to the wrist. 
These bones are bound by 
closely interwoven ligaments, 
but still there is greater flex¬ 
ibility, and the division of the 
wrist-bones into two rows ren¬ 
ders the wrist less liable to 
fracture. 

The metacarpal bones— 
those of the back of the hand 
—are attached at one end to 
the carpal bones, and at the 
other end to the fingers or 
thumbs. It will be observed, by 
experiment, that the metacar¬ 
pal bones connecting with the 
fingers have but little freedom 
of movement, but that the 
metacarpal bone between the 
carpus and the thumb is capa¬ 
ble of several distinct move- 


the eight carpal bones, all 



Photograph Showing Bony Structure of the 
Back of Hand. 


1. First row of phalanges. 

2. Second row of phalanges. 

3. Third row of phalanges. 

4. Metacarpals. 

5-8. Second row of carpals. 
9-12. First row of carpals. 

13. Radius. 

14. Ulna. 






1G0 


MA CFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ments. Observation of a little varied work with the hand will 
show why this must be so. The greatest freedom of the pha¬ 
langes is directed to various forms of grasping, although other 
movements of the fingers are employed in the use of the hand. 

Reference has already been made to the ball-and-socket 
joint of the head of the femur, or thigh-bone, and the cavity 
in the hip-bone. The joints at shoulder and hip are very 
similar; here at the knee we have a hinge joint that is rather 
like that of the elbow. At the base of the femur are two well- 
polished protuberances, known as condyles, separated by a 
groove, that form a hinge joint with the knee cap and with the 
two bones of the lower leg, these two bones being known as 
the tibia and fibula. The tibia is known to everyone under the 

name of “shin-bone.” It is 
a long three-sided shaft, and 
much larger than the fibula, 
which latter bone is firmly 
attached to the tibia at both 
ends. The lower extremity 
of the tibia forms the inside 
projection of the ankle- 
bone; the lower extremity 
of the fibula forms the outer 
projection of the ankle-bone. 
The tarsal bones make up 
the ankle. These bones are seven in number. The rearmost 
of these bones, the os calcis, forms the heel. The powerful 
’tendon of Achilles, the strongest tendon in the body, which 
may be felt in the calf, runs down to this heel bone, and is 
greatly used in keeping the foot in exact position. 

Next to the os calcis is found the astragalus, the hone that 
articulates with the tibia, forming a hinge joint. This astra¬ 
galus bears the weight of the body on the foot. 

Of the metatarsal bones it need only be said that they are 
five in number, and very similar in structure and functions to 
the metacarpal bones of the hand. The phalanges of the foot 
correspond rather closely to those of the hand, and are the 



Ligaments and Joints of the Fourth and 
Fifth Fingers of the Right Hand; Viewed 
From the Palmar Surface. 

1. First row of phalanges. 

2. Second row of phalanges. 

3. Third row of phalanges. 

4. Metacarpals. 

5. Outer ligaments of the joint. 

6. Inner ligaments of the joint. 

7. Capsular ligaments of the joint. 

8. Ligaments of the metacarpals. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


161 


same in number. The pha¬ 
langes of the great toe are two 
in number, as in the case of 
the thumb. 

At 'the knee the purpose of 
the patella, or knee cap, 
which is a small irregular disk 
of bone, is to protect the joint 
and to give greater leverage to 
the more important muscles 
there. 

At the joint ends of bones 
are found thin layers of cartil¬ 
age, which make the joints 
fast. Sockets have a deep ring 
of cartilage at the outer edge 
for the purpose of making the 
socket deeper. To hold the 
bone in place, and to give 
them greater security, liga¬ 
ments pass over the joints, 
connecting the two bones with 
tough, elastic fibers that give 
the bones sufficient freedom 
and yet hold them strictly to 
their places and tasks. Liga¬ 
ments do not break, as bones 
do, but they may be torn— 
lacerated—and it is, of course, 
possible to carry the lacera¬ 
tion of a ligament so far that 
the last remaining fibers will 
snap if strain is put upon 
them. Lacerated ligaments of 
the knee may result from 
wrestling, and, in general, any 



Bony Structure of the Right Foot From 
Below. 

1. First row of phalanges. 

2. Second row of phalanges. 

3. Third row of phalanges. 

4. Metatarsals. 

5-6-7. Cuneufirn bibes. 

8. Cuboid. 

9. Navicular. 

10. Astragalus. 

11. Os calcis. 

12. Sesamoids. 








162 MA C FA D DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


severe wrench will result in the painful laceration of ligaments. 
A very thin tissue, known as synovial membrane, is found 
covering the concave surfaces of the sockets of joints. This 
membrane secretes and gives out at need a joint-oil known as 
synovia. It resembles white of egg in appearance. By oiling 
the joints the synovia defeats the friction that otherwise would 
wear out the joints. Bursa, or synovial sacks, are also found 
at the joints. 

The question may arise in the mind of the reader as to 
whether or not the bones may be enlarged and developed as 
the muscles may be. We may say briefly that this is possible, 
but in most cases not likely. Naturally, the size and strength 
of the bones may be influenced chiefly by the habits and exer¬ 
cises of the individual during the years of growth, but after 
reaching maturity little increase in size can be expected. If 
one’s physical development has been ne¬ 
glected during the years of growth, then a 
proper course of training taken up after 
maturity will tend to bring about a normal 
condition of every part, the bones included, 
and the latter may be increased somewhat in 
size even if they cannot develop the greatest 
strength which might have been possible had 
the boyhood and youth been more favorable. 

The more perfect and pure the condition 
of the blood, the greater the vitality, and the 
more active the circulation, the more satis¬ 
factorily will the bones be nourished, and 
under such conditions of good health they 
will improve if they have been below par in 
size and strength before the inception of the 
mgS rst row of pha ’ &°°d habits which have brought about this 
hlSge°s nd row of good health. If they were already fully de- 
tnges. row of pha- then no change in size will be ap- 

4 . Metatarsals. , i .1 1 • , . 

5 . outer ligaments, parent, although they may be improved m 

6. Inner ligaments. A 0 \ r 

ietatar*»i?, nts of the fl uallt y anc * strength. A vigorous muscular 



Ligaments and Joints 
of the Fourth and 
Fifth Toes of Right 
Foot, Viewed From 
Below. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


163 


condition is invariably accompanied with the active circula¬ 
tion that helps to keep all other tissues at their best. Laying 
aside all comparisons of muscular development, the bones of 
the athlete are far stronger than those of the sedentary work¬ 
er; his nerves are less susceptible to shock; his tendons are 
tougher and his ligaments less easily torn. Men who play 
football develop such hardihood that they can not only endure 
with impunity what might almost kill the average man of 
business, but when they are injured they do not require so 
much time in which to mend. Their bones knit more rapidly, 
wrenched tendons and lacerated ligaments recover in sur¬ 
prisingly short time, while bumps and bruises which others 
might feel for a week seem to disappear over night. Such 
are the advantages of a vigorous physical condition, whether 
acquired by football or by the more rational and more effec¬ 
tive methods which we are teaching. The bones, like all other 
tissues of the body, may be influenced in this way. 

If one really desires to enlarge a particular bone, he can 
do so by subjecting it to repeated and long continued strain. 
If he has a slight wrist and wishes to strengthen and en¬ 
large it, he could do so by working as a bricklayer for two or 
three years, or by persistent practice of exercises which place 
a decided strain upon the wrist without injuring it. Brick¬ 
layers and blacksmiths all have good wrists. Mountaineers 
all have stout knees and sturdy limbs, and a continuous life 
on the mountains, climbing, hunting and struggling over rocky 
passes, would strengthen anybody’s legs, both with reference 
to muscles and bones. As for the bones, however, the greatest 
effect could be accomplished only by beginning before ma¬ 
turity. In most cases it is not advisable to attempt to en¬ 
large or alter the bones, except where there is some deformity, 
in which case corrective exercise, persisted in, will usually 
accomplish marked results in one or two years, sometimes in 
much less time. 


Vol. 1—12 




CHAPTER VI. 

THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. 

I N the effort to bring about improved health and increased 
vitality, we depend upon nothing so much as the volun¬ 
tary use of the muscular system. In this we find the only 
part of the body that is directly under our complete and will¬ 
ful control, and in order that we may employ it successfully 
and intelligently, not only for, strengthening and perfecting 
the muscles themselves, but for increasing the energy and im¬ 
proving the quality of all other organs, tissues and systems of 
the body, it is important that we know and understand the 
nature of this important part of our make-up. 

In colloquial speech we commonly differentiate between 
the muscular system and the various internal organs of the 
body, such as the stomach, heart and lungs. However, a 
muscle is really an organ and an important one—an organ 
of motion. Without our muscular tissues, could we imagine 
ourselves as being ourselves. And lacking in this nearly half 
portion of our total make-up, we could not only not move 
a single member of the body, but the functions of our various 
internal organs and the vital processes of life coidd not pro¬ 
ceed for an instant. 

This power • of voluntary movement is perhaps the first 
thing that distinguishes animal life from the vegetable world. 
The tree is an example of organic life, as distinct from what 
we term inorganic matter. The tree has the power of absorb¬ 
ing and utilizing moisture, sunshine and air, of breathing 
through its leaves, of growing, and of giving off its life-per¬ 
petuating fruit or seed; but it has no power of movement, be¬ 
ing utterly at the mercy of external forces. 

All forms of animal life, however, have the power of mov¬ 
ing themselves of their own volition. The more highly devel¬ 
oped the form of life, the more varied and complex are the 
movements of which it is capable, men and women being pos¬ 
sessed of the most extraordinary and wonderful accomplish¬ 
ments because of this. The marvellous manual dexterity and 


164 


OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


165 


piano technique of Paderewski are simply a matter of muscu- 
lar proficiency and training. The divine touch of the great 
artist, as he expresses his very soul in his masterpiece, is 
placed upon the canvas by means of the muscles that guide his 
gifted hand. Not alone the important things of life, however, 
but also the trifling and commonplace actions, usually more 
important than the seemingly big things, depend, all of them, 
upon this elaborate system of organs of motion which we call 
muscles. 

As we have already shown, we cannot move nor exist with¬ 
out muscular action. It is the essence of natural locomotion. 
In the more primitive conditions of life, we could not build 
fires or houses, or clothe ourselves, or even seek refuge in the 
remote warm corners of a cave, as a protection against cold, 
without muscle. We could not put our food into our mouths, 
we could not chew it or swallow it, and we could not digest it 
without muscular action. We could not lift our lids to open 
our eyes, we could not turn our eyes to see, nor focus the sight 
upon objects far and near, without the use of muscles. We 
could not speak, in tones either gentle or harsh, we could not 
sing, we could not even breathe, except through the help of 
muscles. Even the heart, universally regarded as the most 
vital of all organs, is a muscular structure, working tirelessly 
and with greater persistence and fidelity than any clock for 
perhaps a hundred years, a piece of muscular machinery with¬ 
out which the blood could not circulate, and to which any in¬ 
jury means the instant death of the individual. 

It is true that the impulses which actuate the muscles come 
from the brain, and that their actions depend upon the electrical 
or nervous energy thus imparted. They are still just as im¬ 
portant for their purposes, even if regarded as only the instru¬ 
ments of the mind. It is also true that some of the muscular 
tissues concerned in these various operations casually mention¬ 
ed are of the involuntary kind, but they only serve to show the 
importance and dignity of these tissues as an important factor 
in the making of a human. Muscle is not a low-grade tissue, 
as some have fancied, and it should be self-evident that the 




166 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


more perfectly the muscles and tissues of the body are trained 
and cultivated, the more efficient will they become in them¬ 
selves, and the more capable the individual whose will they 
obey. 

Seeing things in this light, how absurd becomes the pitiful 
attitude of those pretended worshippers of the high brow 
who sneer at muscle and its exercise. Unfortunately, there 
are still many, the number happily becoming less and less, who 
tell us with a tedious reiteration that what we need is brain 
and not brawn, mental and not muscular strength. But this 
is like saying to the builder of a magnificent building that he 
should go ahead first to build the dome; that he is wasting time 
on the foundation, but that he should go ahead and erect the 
upper part of the building without it. We know, however, 
that in erecting great buildings more time is usually spent 
upon building the foundation right than in putting up and 
completing all the rest of the structure. And this is even more 
important in the case of the body. 

Perhaps the importance of a perfect and normal condi¬ 
tion of the muscular system lies not so much in its value for 
the purpose of maintaining external strength and manual 
efficiency as in the more vital considerations .having to do 
with the chemical and functional processes of life. These will 
be apparent at once when we observe that the muscular system 
of a normal and healthy human body comprises something 
between forty and fifty per cent, of the total bulk or nearly 
three times more than any other system or tissue of the body. 
When we realize that perhaps two-thirds of our vital heat 
is produced by the muscles, and that the greater part of our 
food is consumed in them, we can begin to appreciate their 
tremendous physiological importance. We will see how im¬ 
perative is the requirement that we should be and continue to 
be muscularly perfect, or as nearly so as possible. With this 
aspect of the subject in mind, we will see, as we may never 
have seen before, that in neglecting to take at least a fair and 
healthful amount of active exercise daily, we are simply fol¬ 
lowing a policy of slow self-destruction. It is impossible to 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


167 


be muscularly wrong, and to be right in other respects. When 
we say muscularly perfect we do not mean an extreme or ab¬ 
normal development, but a normal condition of every part of 
the body, a natural, vigorous degree of strength, and, in 
short, a physical condition in which we may compare favorably 
with the common perfection of life among the lower animals. 

Voluntary motion by animals, as we shall see later, comes 
through the exercise of some degree of mental power, but the 
finest of nervous organizations would be incapable of inspir¬ 
ing any motion if it were not for the co-ordination of muscles. 

The more muscles there are trained the greater will be the 
varieties of motion that are possible. The firmer and larger 
the muscles are the greater the strain that they will endure. If 
the muscles are trained in toughness alone the possessor may 
have great strength that will be equal, for instance, to carry¬ 
ing great loads, or lifting great weights. But if the muscles 
are so trained that they do not become merely tough but elas¬ 
tic as well, he who has such muscles will display great agility 
in the different methods of exercising his strength. Finally, 
he who is intelligent, and who has a nervous system that is 
perfectly balanced, so that the brain may direct, and the 
nerves may carry the orders to the muscles, will be strong, 
agile and skillful in anything that involves muscular motion. 

If a human cadaver be examined upon the dissecting table, 
it will be found that the muscles that perform the work of the 



Striated Muscle After Application of Weak Acid. 

(Greatly magnified.) 

1. Fibrillse. 

2. Cross striations. 

3. Longitudinal striations. 

4. Nuclei. 

5. Separation into disks. 




















168 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


arms and legs, of the chest, back, etc., are long and red. These 
are known as the voluntary muscles, for the reason that they 
move only when their living possessor wills that they should 
do so. All of the voluntary muscles present this same color, 
although in differing shades of redness, so that the voluntary 
muscles may always be known when seen. There is, another 
characteristic of the voluntary muscles that is apparent to the 
eye in the larger muscles, but which must be found with the 
aid of a microscope in many of the smaller muscles. This is 
the fact that voluntary muscles have one characteristic of 
structure in common: They are striated —that is, striped. 
These striated muscles may be likened somewhat to the spiral 
spring, and it is this characteristic of structure that makes 
the contraction of the muscles possible. 

The essential principle of all muscle, whether voluntary or 
involuntary, is this power of contracting. Raise your fist so 
that it touches the shoulder, and several sets of muscles have 
been contracted to make the movement possible. Straighten 
the arm again, and other sets of muscles have been contracted 
in order to bring the first out straight from the shoulder. 

Merely for the sake of convenience, we speak of a muscle as 
if it were one single and complete affair by itself. Yet, if we 
place a cross-section of even a very small muscle under the 
lens of the microscope, we find that it is made up of a bundle 
of a great many fibers. Each fiber is enclosed in and pro¬ 
tected by a very thin, transparent sheath known as the sar- 



Striated Muscle Showing Ending of a Nerve. 

(Detailed reproduction—Greatly magnified.) 

1. Striae in relaxed muscle. 

2. Striae—contracted. 

3. Motor nerve. 

4. Photo of end of nerve. 

5. Nuclei of the nerve sheath. 

6. Nuclei of the muscle cells. 






OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


161 ) 


colemma. And each fiber is made up of many much smaller 
threads of tissue which are designated as fibrillse. The striated 
appearance is found even in the fibrillse. Now we find that 
fibrillse, bound up in the sarcolemma, form the fibers, which 
are bound together in bunches known as fasciculi, and that 
these latter are in turn bound together and enclosed in sheaths. 
A muscle, therefore, is a number of fasciculi bound together, 
and often very intricately. 

Upon further examination we find that each muscle, how¬ 
ever small, has its own complete and even intricate set of 
nerves, lymphatics, and blood vessels. It is the presence of 
these blood vessels that gives to the voluntary muscles their 
red color. Of the lymphatics more will be said in a later chap¬ 
ter; they are an important part of the nutritive mechanism of 
the body. Blood vessels, lymphatics and nerves that are on 
missions to other parts of 
the body do not pass 
through the voluntary mus¬ 
cles, but between them. 

These voluntary muscles 
cover the bones, but are not 
directly attached to them. 

At either end of a muscle 

may be found a white connective tissue, the tendons, 
tendons are familiar to all who have cut up raw meat, 
examined closely it will be seen that there is a gradual merging 
of the fasciae, or connective tissue forming the sheaths around 



Smooth Muscle Fibrillae. 

(Highly magnified.) 

1. Not fully developed. ' 

2. Fully developed. 


These 

When 


muscles, into the tendons. 

Very different in appearance are the involuntary muscles. 
They are smooth and regular in appearance; they are band¬ 
shaped, with somewhat of the appearance of gutta-percha. 
They are not striated (striped). A powerful microscope re¬ 
veals the fact that these involuntary muscles are not made up 
of fibers, but are composed of long, needle-shaped cells that 
form flat textures like sheets of paper. Another peculiarity 
of the involuntary muscles is that they have no tendon attach¬ 
ments; from the fact that involuntary muscles are not attached 





170 


MA CFA DDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


to bones they have no need of tendons. Involuntary muscles 
have the same characteristic of contraction that is possessed 
by the voluntary muscles; they also respond to irritation, al¬ 
though to a less marked degree than do the voluntary muscles. 

Of all the involuntary muscles the finest samples are those 
found in the heart, that organ which never ceases work for an 
instant while life lasts. Other involuntary muscles are those 
of the lungs, which carry on the work of respiration even when 
we are asleep. So, too, do the stomach, the liver and kidneys, 
the intestines and all of the other vital organs perform their 
various tasks through the constant contractions of their invol¬ 
untary muscles. Thus the churning of the stomach brings 
about the performance of digestion. The involuntary mus¬ 
cles of the intestines force the contents along. The blood ves¬ 
sels and the lymphatics perform their offices by the aid of in¬ 
voluntary muscles. 

Whether or not the involuntary muscles can be made, by 
a direct effort of the will, to take on some of the voluntary 
characteristics is a question that cannot be decided with finality. 
It is not to be thought that the involuntary muscles can act 
wholly independent of the control of the nervous system; in 
fact, it is well known that the possessor of a finely organized 
nervous system will have healthier involuntary muscles, and 
this would seem to indicate complete nervous control of the in¬ 
voluntary muscles. We know that one can increase his heart 
beat by breathing much more rapidly; he can stimulate the 
churning of the stomach.by an effort of the will; but here the 
involuntary muscles are forced into action by the voluntary 
muscles. In this way the involuntary muscles would seem to 
represent a finely adjusted automatism. Fundamentally, 
however, they really depend absolutely upon the control of 
the nervous system. When influenced by the voluntary mus¬ 
cles in this seemingly automatic action, it is really the nerves 
which are first affected, they acting in turn upon the involun¬ 
tary muscles. Let anything happen to the nerves and the in¬ 
voluntary muscles are motionless. A blow in the solar plexus, 
for instance, a sympathetic nerve center, will temporarily para- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


171 


lyze the action of the involuntary muscles of the heart and of 
respiration. In short, these involuntary muscles, like all others, 
depend primarily upon the brain and nervous system, but in 
a sub-conscious manner instead of being subject to conscious 
volition. 

The most pronounced characteristic of either voluntary or 
involuntary muscles is their apparent “irritability.” Any form 
of irritation that is applied to a muscle causes it to contract. 
This is seen, readily enough, by touching a muscle sharply. 
There are other forms of irritation than mere contact. Ex¬ 
cessive heat will cause quick and sharp muscular contraction. 
When one is insensible his muscles will contract—twitch—if a 
strong current of electricity be passed through his body. Active 
respiration, forcing the blood through the body, will cause the 
muscles to twitch on account of the irritation caused by the 
passage of blood against the muscles, and also on account of 
the other irritation produced by the involuntary muscles in 
motion in the blood vessels. 

Perhaps we should make a distinction here, for the reason 
that in some cases what may seem to be the irritability of the 
muscle is only the result of the action of the nerves contained 
in it. The nerves in such a case are affected by the irritation 
or external influence, in turn causing the muscle to contract by 
reflex action. In the case of an electrical current, however, 
this will act directly upon the muscular tissue, causing it to 
contract in much the same manner as by the stimulus of “nerve- 
force,” though without the control and direction that come 
through the nerves from the brain. The best proof of this is 
that electricity will cause contraction of the muscles of a dead 
person. As we shall, see later, this similarity of the influence 
upon the muscles of both the nerve impulses and electrical cur¬ 
rents is one of the facts which tend to show that the mysterious 
force of what we call “life” is either a form of electrical power 
or something akin to it. 

Muscles are said to have an “origin” and an “insertion”— 
terms that are much used. The origin of a muscle is its 
source* or the place where it begins. The insertion is the 




172 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


spot where the farther end of the muscle is attached. For 
instance, in an arm muscle, the origin is the point on the bone 
from which the muscle proceeds; the insertion is the point 
which, by muscular contraction, is brought nearer to the origin. 
The voluntary muscles always end in tendons at the points of 
origin and insertion. 

In the limbs the “tendon of origin” is usually that attached 
to the trunk of the body, or nearest it, while the other tendon, 
to be called the “tendon of insertion,” is the one at the farther 
end of the muscle. 



Superficial Muscles of the Head. 

1. Tendons of the Occipito-frontalis. 

2. Occipito-frontalis. 

3. Temporal. 

4. Sphincter of eyelids. 

5. Zygomatic major. 

6. Zygomatic minor. 

7. Levator of lip and nose. 

8. Compressor of the nose. 

9. Kisorius. 

10. Sphincter of the mouth. 

11. Masseter. 

12. Sterno-mastoid. 

13. Trapezius. 

14. Splenius. 

15. Levator of the upper lip. 

16. Levator of the angle of mouth. 

17. Platysma myoides. 

18. Depressor of the nose. 

19. Depressor of the corner of mouth. 

20. Depressor of the lower lip. 

21. Levator of the chin'. 

22. Pyramidal of the nose. 

23. Upper eyelid. 

24. Lower eyelid. 

25-26-27. Muscles used in moving ears, 
28. Occipito-frontal. 


Muscles are divided into 
several groups, according to 
their position, structure and 
functions. The commonest 
of the voluntary muscles are 
the recti, or straight. Then 
we have the deltoid, or trian¬ 
gular shaped, the brachial or 
arm muscles, and the intercos¬ 
tal muscles between the ribs. 
The biceps are two-headed 
muscles and the triceps three¬ 
headed. 

The muscles of the face are 
by no means unimportant in 
relation to the work for which 
they are designed, but they 
scarcely require any special 
attention from the student of 
Physcultopathy and for that 
reason we need not enter into 
any detailed study of them 
here. They will be made clear 
by a study of the anatomical 
charts, in the light of our un¬ 
derstanding of the action of 
the other muscles of the body. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


173 


Many physical culturists are guilty of the fault of letting 
the neck muscles take care of themselves. Special exercises 
should always be provided for the purpose. Twisting and 
bending the head and neck in all possible positions will pro¬ 
vide the work needed for the neck muscles, which are highly 
important in the general anatomy. 

Yet it is not necessary to study carefully all of the nine 
groups of muscles that are found in the neck. Most of these 
muscles are of interest only to the dissector and the surgeon. 
The platysma myoides is a superficial muscle covering all 
others in the front of the neck. It has no great importance, 
and outside of physical culturists people do not usually know 
of its existence. Yet is is very conspicuous when developed 
and vigorously contracted. The two important pairs of mus¬ 
cles to be studied and watched in the bodily development of 
the pupil who is to have a strong neck are the splenius and 
the sterno-cleido-mastoid. If these muscles be strong, as may 
be ascertained easily by feeling them in motion under the skin, 
then one may be satisfied that the other muscles are also in good 
condition and that the neck of the pupil will have all of the 
muscular power that should be developed. 

It will be remembered that the twenty-four vertebrae of the 
spinal cord are divided into three groups, as follows: Seven 
cervical or neck vertebrae, beginning directly at the base of the 
head; below these, twelve dorsal vertebra*, belonging to the 
back proper, and five lumbar vertebrae in the small of the 
back. It is well to study the exact positions of these vertebrae 
and to keep them in mind at all times in connection with the 
muscles and nerves, particularly the latter, that have their 
starting point from the spinal column. 

The splenius muscle has its origin in a single tendon, very 
narrow and pointed in form. It arises from the large lig& - 
ment (ligament riuchae) that passes down the back of the neck 
over the spine, proceeds upward from the last cervical and the 
upper six dorsal vertebrae, and broadens on the way upward. 
As it broadens the splenius divides into two broad hands of as¬ 
sociated muscle, the splenius capitis and the splenius colli. 




174 


MA CFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


The capitis has its insertion at the temporal bone over the ear. 
The colli’s insertion is at the two or sometimes at the three 
upper cervical vertebrse. 

The splenius, both the capitis and colli, is the muscle felt at 
the back of the neck between the mastoid muscle and the spine. 
Its motions are readily felt when the head is turned to one side, 
or when the head is nodded. Anatomically the splenius is 
designated as one of the trunk muscles, but its action is felt 
most readily in the neck. 

On the other hand, the sterno-cleido-mastoid muscle, found 
on either side of the neck, is a true neck muscle. It is readily 
found by placing the hand just back of the ear. Any pro¬ 
nounced movement of the head will bring the mastoid into 
prominence under the fingers. This muscle runs obliquely 
downward to the front. At the center it is thick and narrow, 
and feels like a stout rope beneath the fingers. At each ex¬ 
tremity it is broader and thinner. One portion of the lower 
mastoid has its origin at the head (manubrium) of the sternum 
(breast-bone). Another portion of the mastoid has its origin 
at the upper surface of the collar-bone. The two portions have 
their common insertion back of the ear. 

A glance at the color plate will make clear what is to be 
said of the more important of the muscles of the back. These 
are the trapezius, the latissimus dorsi and the rhomboids. 

Let us first glance at the location of the trapezius. It will 
be seen that this is a very large muscle of triangular shape, and 
reaching all the way from the base of the skull to the lower por¬ 
tion of the dorsal region. It is a flat muscle just underneath 
the skin, and is composed of a great network of smaller muscles. 
The origin of the trapezius is a broad one, this muscle arising 
from the base of the skull, from the great neck ligament already 
mentioned, and from the seventh cervical and all of the dorsal 
vertebrse. The insertion is on the clavicle and on the acromion 
process of the shoulder-blade. In most of its extent the trape¬ 
zius is fleshy, but at the points of origin and insertion the ends 
of the muscle are found in tough tendons. The function of the 
trapezius is to control the backward movements of the head and 






PLATE C 


Illustration I. The Back 
Muscles. 

Letters a to g, vertebrae of 
neck or cervical regibn. Small 
figures 1 to 12, vertebrae of 
the thorax. Larger figures 
show muscles bearing the fol¬ 
lowing scientific names: 

1. Sterno-mastoid. 

2. Splenius. 

3. Trapezius. 

4. Levator of the scapula. 


Latissimus dorsi. 
Deltoid. 

Rhomboideus (greater) 
Infra spinatus. 

Teres major. 
Rhomboideus (lesser) 
Intercostals. 

Serratus muscles. 
Ilio-costalis. 

Longissimus dorsi. 
Spinalis dorsi. 

Supra-spinatus. 




Illustration H. Inner Side of 
the Hand Showing Muscles 
and Tendons. 

1-2-3. Flexing tendons. 

4. The annular ligament. 

5. Small flexor of little finger. 

6. Tendons of flexor muscles. 

7. Lumbricales. 

8. Palmaris brevis. 

9. Abductor of the thumb. 

10. Small flexor of the thumb. 

11. Abductor of the thumb. 

12. Opponens of the thumb. 

13. Flexors. 

14. Pisiform bone. 


Illustration III Back of the 
Hand. 

1-2. Extensors of the fingers. 

3. Capsular tendons. 

4. Interosseous muscles. 

5. Extensor of the little fin¬ 

ger. 

6-7. Extensors of the thumb. 

8. Adductor of the thumb. 

9. Annular ligament. 

10. Radius. 

11. Ulna 



Illustration IV. View of 
Under-Surface of Foot. 

1. Short flexor of the toes. 

2. Long flexor of the toes. 

3. Flexor of the great toe. 

4. Abductor of the great toe. 

5. Abductor of the little toe. 

6. Interosseous muscle. 

7. Lumbricales. 

8. Annular ligament. 

9. Os calcis (heel bone). 















OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


177 


shoulders. In lifting or in pulling the trapezius plays its im¬ 
portant part; hence exercise for the trapezius should involve 
lifting, as of weights and pulling, as in tugs of war. 

On either side of the lower half of the back we find a mus¬ 
cle that corresponds somewhat to the trapezius in shape and 
extent, at least, and this is the latissimus dorsi, which is also 
just beneath the skin, except where, at its upper end, it passes 
under the trapezius. The origin of this lower back muscle 
is at the six lower dorsal vertebras, the lumbar vertebras, the 
sacrum and at the upper edge of the hip-bone. 

The latissimus dorsi, like its mate, the trapezius, is a com¬ 
plicated network of muscles, whose windings it is unnecessary 
for the gymnast to follow. The muscle converges in a short, 
very thick tendon that finds its insertion near the upper end 
of the humerus, the large bone of the upper arm. 

The function of the latissimus dorsi is to draw the arm 
downward and backward. From this statement it will realized 
what a great variety of exercises can be utilized in strengthen¬ 
ing this muscle. Any form of systematic exertion that pulls 
the arms downward or backward is indicated. The schoolboy 
usually thinks that he “chins” himself entirely with the biceps, 
but it is not true. Work on the bars, “chinning” for instance, 
or climbing ladders or ropes, bending, swaying or twisting 
the trunk, dumb-bell work that throws the elbows and shoul¬ 
ders back—these and countless other forms of exercise employ 
this muscle and are valuable for strengthening a “weak back.” 

The rhomboid muscles are found readily in any well-de¬ 
veloped back. Let the subject stand with elbows at his sides, 
forearms horizontal and fists clenched. With the arms tense 
let the subject move his elbows and shoulders back. The rhom¬ 
boids will show plainly to the eye in little ridges of muscles, 
showing outwardly in an almost perpendicular position, be¬ 
tween the two shoulder-blades. 

The rhomboids occur just underneath the trapezius, and 
assist the latter in its work. Hence the same kinds of exercises 
are called for as in the case of the trapezius. The minor rhom¬ 
boids have their origin in the ligament nuchse, already referred 





Muscles of the Hu¬ 
man Body Viewed 
From the Front. 

I. Frontal mus¬ 
cle, opens . eyelids. 

2-3. Temporal, 
moves the ears. 

4. Sphincter of 
the eyelids. 

5. Sphincter of 
the mouth. 

6. Platysma my- 
oides (neck mus¬ 
cle). 

7. Laryngeal and 
hyoid. 

8. Sternomastoid 
(bowing- muscle). 

9. Pectoralis ma¬ 
jor (great breast 
muscle). 

10. Pectoralis mi¬ 
nor (smaller breast 
muscle). 

II. Subclavius 
(collar bone mus¬ 
cle). 

12. Intercostals. 

13. E x te r n a 1 
oblique. 

14. Rectus ab- 
dominalis. 

15. Transverse. 

16. Deltoid. 

17. Biceps. 

18. Triceps. 

19. Pronator radii 
teres. 

20 . Supinator 
longus. 

21. Flexor of the 
wrist (radial). 

22. Flexor of the 
wrist (ulnar). 

23. Flexor of the 
fingers. 

24. The annular 
ligament. 

25. Flexor of the 
thumb. 

26. Palmar mus¬ 
cle. 

27. Extensor of 
the wrist. 

28-29. Extensors 
of the fingers. 

30. Adductor of 
the thigh. 

31. Sartorius. 

32. Rectus fe- 
moris. 

33. Tendon of the 
knee cap. 

34. Vastus in- 
ternus., 

35. Vastus ex- 
ternus. 

36. Tibialis anti- 
cus. 

37. Semi-tendin¬ 
osis. 

38. 39. Extensors 
of the toes. 

40. Soleus. 

41. Gastrocne¬ 
mius (calf). 

42. Peroneus lon¬ 
gus (foot exten¬ 
sor). 


178 







OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


179 


to, and in the seventh cervical and first dorsal vertebras, and 
their insertion at the root of the spine or ridge of the scapula. 
The major rhomboids have their origin in the first four or five 
of the upper dorsal vertebrae, and their insertion in a thin 
arch of tendon that is attached to the spine of the scapula. 

Now, let us take a brief glance at the muscles found at the 
front of the trunk. First of all are the pectorals, or chest 
muscles, which cover the chest. The upper and more impor¬ 
tant of the pair on either side is the major pectoral, or pec- 
toralis major. Its origin is from the clavicle near the sternum 
and from the sternum itself as far down as the cartilage at¬ 
tachments of the sixth or seventh ribs. This major pectoral 
is fan-shaped and terminates in a thick and powerful tendon, 
some two inches broad, inserted at the outer edge of the upper 
end of the humerus. 

The origin of the minor pectoral is at the third, fourth and 
fifth ribs, near their cartilages, and the insertion in a tendon 
that connects with the coracoid process of the shoulder-blade. 
The coracoid process, you will remember, is the bony projec¬ 
tion from the front of the scapula which helps to protect the 
glenoid cavity in which the head of the humerus rests. 

It is the work of the major pectoral to draw the arm across 
the front of the chest, while to the minor pectoral is assigned 
the work of depressing the shoulder-point. A somewhat mild 
but effective exercise for the pectorals, in which, also, the inter¬ 
costal (rib) muscles are benefited, is found in deep and long- 
continued breathing of outdoor air, in which the chest is re¬ 
peatedly raised and lowered and forced outward. 

The intercostal muscles are set rather deeply between the 
ribs and assist in the expansion of the chest during such free 
breathing as may call for this expansion of the chest. 

The serratus magnus arises from the upper eight ribs a 
little forward from the sides of the body, and is inserted in the 
shoulder-blades. 

Of great importance are the oblique external muscles of the 
abdomen. These pass down from the sides obliquely across 
the abdomen toward the front. They are broad, flat muscles 




180 


MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


that are used in the various bending movements of the trunk. 
Behind them are the internal oblique muscles of the abdomen, 
which aid the external muscles in their tasks. The character 
and location of these muscles should be carefully studied both 
on the charts and on one’s own person. 

The rectus abdominis, or straight abdominal muscle, is to 
be found on either side of the central perpendicular line of 
the abdomen. It is a long, flat muscle which extends the whole 
length of the abdomen, and the work of the pair is to press 
the intestines inward, as in abdominal breathing, to depress or 
pull the shoulders and chest downward, or, when lying on the 
back, to raise the upper body to a sitting position. This is the 
muscle that gives the great ridge-like appearance to the 
stomach, when well developed and contracted, and of which 
athletes are sometimes so very proud. 

The study of the muscles of the arm will probably be found 
very interesting inasmuch as they indicate so clearly both the 
general structure and the character of muscular action. Their 
actions can be felt and seen very clearly from the outside and 
the swelling of the biceps in the bending of the arm is one of 
the most familiar facts of childhood. 

It should be remembered,- however, that in many of the 
movements in which the upper arm is concerned, we do not 
depend so much upon the muscles of the arm itself (with the 
exception of the deltoid and its action) as upon those of the 
upper trunk, of the chest, back and shoulders. For instance, 
in striking a blow forward, we depend largely upon the pec¬ 
toral muscles for bringing the arm forward, the extensor of 
the upper arm only straightening the member as it is brought 
forward to strike the blow. The heavy hitting boxer, there¬ 
fore, does not depend upon his arm muscles merely. The 
similar participation of the latissimus dorsi, and other trunk 
muscles in the movements of the arm, has already been noted. 
It will be seen that, with the exception of the deltoid, the mus¬ 
cles of the upper arm are concerned with the movements of 
the lower arm or forearm, and the muscles of the latter with the 
movements of the wrist, hand and fingers. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


181 


Stand with the arm hanging limply at the side, the open 
palm of the hand resting against the side of the leg. Clench 
the fist, raise it quickly to the shoulder, and strike out hard 
at some imaginary foe. The performance of this simple action 
has called into play a great, complicated and magnificent 
system of muscles which control every act that makes for the 
sustenance and protection of human life, muscles that are 
brought into constant use in every one of the thousands of tasks 
that make up the sum total of civilization. 

The main causes of the difference between man and the 
lower animals are that man has . a better brain with which 
to decree the acts of his life, and that he has hands with which 
to execute the orders received from his brain. And the hands 
are directly controlled by the muscular movements of the arms. 

Biologists declare that the use of the muscles of the body, 
but especially the manipulation of the hands and other external 
objects through the hands, has been one of the most important 
of all factors in the education of the human brain. This is true 
not only with reference to the race, but in the case of each in¬ 
dividual human during his period of infancy. The man who 
can “do things” with his hands usually has a pretty good level 
head. But this would lead us into Another line of study. 

In the very act of raising the arm from the side the use of 
one of the arm muscles was necessary. This is the deltoid mus¬ 
cle, which we referred to a moment ago, a flat, strong, triangu¬ 
lar mass of fibers that is found on the outside of the upper 
shoulder. The play of this muscle may be felt plainly by plac¬ 
ing the hand of the other arm in place over the muscle, then 
raising and lowering the arm rapidly. 

Covering nearly all of the front side of the upper arm lies 
the muscle that is best known and most interesting of all to the 
novice in physical culture. This is the biceps—so called be¬ 
cause it is two-headed. By “two-headed” is meant that the 
muscle has a dual beginning or head. These beginnings are 
tendons; there are two, a long and a short one. The short ten¬ 
don has its origin in the coracoid process of the shoulder-blade. 
The long tendon has its origin in the glenoid cavity, and passes 

Vol. 1—13 




182 


MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


over the head of the humerus or upper bone of the arm. Each 
tendon merges into a long, muscular “belly,’* as the fleshy 
part of a muscle is termed. These two “bellies” lie close to¬ 
gether, although they can be distinguished easily from each 
other until they are within some three inches of the hinge joint 
of the elbow. 

In general contour the biceps is a long spindle. The in¬ 
sertion of the biceps is in a single tendon that is attached to 
the upper end of the radius, the smaller and outer of the two 
bones of the forearm. You will remember, of course, how the 
upper ends of the ulna and radius are so joined together as 
to effect a hinge joint with the lower end of the humerus and 
it will be understood from this how the biceps operates to bring 
up the forearm. 

Now, there is another very important muscle of the arm 
of which not so much is heard in the boastings of the schoolboy 
as of the biceps. This is the triceps. It is on the under side 
of the upper arm, and, as its name implies, is three-headed. 
The middle tendon of the triceps has its origin on the 
scapula, just below the glenoid cavity; the external head 
rises from the upper shaft of the humerus, on the under 
side, and the internal, or short head, has its origin also 
from the shaft of the humerus. The main insertion of the 
triceps is in an attachment with the head of the ulna, although 
a set of fibers from the tendon attach lower down in the back 
of the forearm. 

It is the task of the biceps to bend, or “flex,” the forearm 
upon the upper arm. This is the familiar movement when 
“feeling muscle.” The function of the triceps is to straighten 
the arm out again; hence it is called an extensor. The biceps 
and triceps, as we see, are exactly opposed to each other. 

Besides the biceps there is another important muscle in 
the front portion of the upper arm, the one known to anato¬ 
mists as the brachialis anticus. Its main position may be de¬ 
tected readily by the examination of one’s own arm while 
steadily flexing and extending it. It is a broad muscle that' 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 183 


covers tlie elbow and the lower half of the front of the humerus. 
The origin of this muscle begins at the insertion of the deltoid, 
and extends to within an inch of the elbow joint. The in¬ 
sertion is in the ulna. The function of the brachialis anticus 
is to flex the elbow. No especial form of exercise is indicated 
for this muscle, the general work employed for the develop¬ 
ment of the arm accomplishing all that is needed. 

In the forearm the muscles that need to be considered 
principally may be divided into four groups, and all of these 
have the function in common of controlling the wrist and hand. 
The movements of all these sets of muscles may be followed 
with ease through the covering of skin. 

Rest the elbow and the back of the hand on the table. Still 
letting the wrist lie on the table, bring the palm of the hand up 
toward the elbow. The muscles that move during this exercise 
will be found on the front and the inside of the forearm. These 
muscles are known as the flexors, since it is their function to 
bring the palm of the hand up toward the forearm. 

Now, extend the hand again, until it is in line with the 
forearm and the back of the hand rests once more on the table. 
The muscles that move now will be found on the front of the 
forearm, near the outer edge and along the outer edge of the 
forearm. It is the work of these muscles to extend the hand, 
and these are known as the extensors. 

Both the flexors and the extensors can be felt to still better 
advantage if you extend your arm horizontally forward. Hold¬ 
ing the arm somewhat rigid, with the hand straight out at first, 
flex the palm up toward the elbow; then extend it. If the arm 
be held tense, it will be noted that there is slight fatigue on 
the inner edge of the forearm when the hand is flexed, with the 
same perception of fatigue on the outer edge of the forearm 
when the hand is slowly extended. 

Next rest the forearm and open palm of the hand on the 
table. Without raising the forearm, turn the hand over so 
that the back of the hand rests upon the table. This way of 
turning the hand is called supination. The supinator mus- 




184 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


cles that make this turning of the wrist possible will be found 
in the front side of the forearm. 

After you have thus located the supinator muscles, and 
have felt their movements, turn the hand back again so that 
it rests upon the palm with the back of the hand up. This 
movement is known as pronation, and the muscles that accom¬ 
plish it are called the pronators. 

Both the supinator and pronator muscles are attached to 
the front of the radius, the smaller and shorter bone of the fore¬ 
arm. It will be remembered that the base of the radius articu¬ 
lates with the carpal bones of the wrist, and it is through the 
contraction of the muscles just discussed that the movements of 
the wrist and hand are compelled. 

When these four sets of muscles are well-developed and 
healthy it is said that one has a strong wrist. Lack of de¬ 
velopment in these muscles is responsible for weakness of the 
wrist. 

Since these muscles have so much to do with the movements 
of the hand, it is highly important that they should be trained 
to a high degree of excellence. An arm that is strong at 
every other point is weak, indeed, if it be lacking at the wrist. 

Gripping and lifting work will be effective. Any form of 
exercise that forces the wrists to turn freely, rapidly, and un¬ 
der tension, is indicated. Work on the bars, and tugging, 
are to be commended for this purpose, as well as climbing, 
especially on ladders and on ropes. The muscles that make for 
“strong wrists” do not yield readily to treatment. A gym¬ 
nasium pupil with weak wrists must work some time before 
he can hope to note a great improvement. 

Rowing and ball-pitching do much for the weak wrist, 
but fencing is par excellence the exercise of them all that is 
needed to insure the building up of a wrist that shall be at 
once strong, flexible and supple. It is to be regretted that 
fencing exercises only the right wrist. The left wrist, 
therefore, must receive its full share of benefit by being 
more employed than the right in other forms of wrist 
training. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


185 


If one takes up fencing or broad-sword work for the sake 
of exercise, then he should learn the game with either hand, 
practicing with both, so that he may be symmetrically devel¬ 
oped and equally strong on both sides. 

When we come to consider the anatomy of the muscles of 
the hand we find it impossible to learn much unless we con¬ 
sider these muscles in connection with those of the forearm, 
some of which we have just considered. 

A careful study of and frequent reference to the illustra¬ 
tions will be necessary, in order to understand the muscles 
which control the hand. 

Let us examine, first of all, the muscular control of the 
thumb. On the front or palm side of the thumb we find a short 
muscle at the outer edge known as the abductor of the thumb. 
Its purpose is to draw the thumb inward and toward the palm. 
On the inside edge of the thumb, nearest the fingers, is a mus¬ 
cle known as the thumb’s flexor—the flexor longus pollicis. 
While it is the task of an abductor muscle to draw the member 
away from the center, the flexor is always the muscle that 
causes a member to fold over on itself. Thus the thumb flexor 
is used when the thumb is bent inward, as in the ordinary 
clenching of the fist. And thus the other muscle described, the 
abductor, draws the thumb away from its center, and neces¬ 
sarily toward the palm. On the extreme outer edge of the 
thumb is a short muscle (the opponens) that acts in opposition 
to the abductor, thus bringing the thumb straight again when 
employed. 

Now we go up into the forearm in search of a muscle that 
is most important to the successful work of the palm of the 
hand. This muscle is known as the palmaris longus. It wjll 
be seen that it is a long and narrow muscle. It rises in the 
condyle of the humerus, the condyle being the extremity of 
that bone which fits into the socket-like heads of the ulna 
and radius to form the hinge joint of the elbow. The course 
of the palmaris longus will be seen to be at first along the 
ulnar side of the forearm, but it obliques gradually inward, 
and is found crossing into the hand at about the center of the 




186 MAC FAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


wrist. The tendon of this muscle ends partly in the palmar 
fascia. It will be remembered that fascia is the name given to 
sheaths that cover muscles. This palmar fascia is a common 
sheath covering the muscles of the palm of the hand. It will 
be seen that this fascia branches off into four slips, each con¬ 
necting with one of the four fingers. Each slip gives off 
numerous muscular fibers that extend to the skin of the palm 
and of the fingers. 

There are two lateral sections of the palmar fascia. One, 
on the thumb side, covers the muscles of the ball of the thumb; 
on the little finger side the lateral portion of the palmar fascia 
covers the muscles of the little finger. 

Now it will be understood how much of the movements of 
the hand is controlled by that slender muscle, the palmaris 
longus. And the exact location of this muscle, and the work 
that it performs, may be studied in the living arm and hand. 
Stand with the arm held horizontally forward, but with none 
of the muscles of the arm or hand tensed. Ascertain the exact 
course of the palmaris longus, as shown in the illustrations. 
Now, rapidly open and close the hand. While doing so let the 
fingers of the other hand move rapidly up and down along the 
indicated line of the palmaris longus. The location of that 
muscle will be verified as its action is felt through the skin. 

For the next examination rest the finger tips of the right 
hand in the center of the palm of the left hand. Now close 
the fingers of the left hand over the backs of the fingers of the 
right hand, and the movements of the muscles enclosed in the 
palmar fascia will be felt. This may be extended by placing 
the right finger tips over the inside, of the first phalanges of 
each of the fingers of the left hand and again working these 
left fingers shut and open. The play of the finger muscles will 
thus be illustrated. 

On the inner sides of the fingers the most important 
muscles are naturally the flexors which have to do with folding 
the fingers over when closing the hand. The first and fourth 
fingers are also supplied with active abductor muscles, which 
are used in drawing these fingers away from their fellows. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


187 


In the palm of the hand is an extensive system of muscles 
of an inferior class that are known as the lumbricales. They 
perform an important part in aiding the flexors of the fingers. 

At the base of the hand, where it joins the wrist, is a 
strong ligame.nt known as the annular. It forms a strong band, 
or ring, around the wrist, and is divided into two portions, 
the anterior (front) and the posterior (rear) ligament. 

At the forward or finger end of the palm is another liga¬ 
ment known as the superficial transverse ligament. This is 
a fibrous band that stretches across the roots of the four fingers, 
and is closely attached to the skin in the clefts. 

Both the annular and the superficial transverse ligaments 
aid in keeping in place the bones that they cover. They fur¬ 
nish protection, also, to the muscles, tendons, blood vessels 
and nerves that pass under them. 

Of course, the most important muscles that we look for 
in the back of the hand are the extensors that serve to straighten 
the wrist, hand and fingers in line with the forearm, thus doing 
work exactly opposite to that performed by the flexor 
muscles. 

As a matter of course, then, we look to the forearm for a 
muscle that shall control these extensors of the fingers, or of 
the back of the hand, or of the back of the wrist. The ex¬ 
tensors of the fingers we find to be controlled by a muscle 
known as the extensor communis digitorum. This rises in 
the back of the condyle of the humerus, or on the opposite side 
of the condyle from the palmaris longus already described. 

This extensor communis digitorum, just below the middle 
of the back of the forearm, divides into three muscles that pass 
on to the first, second and third fingers, forming the extensor 
svstem there. There is a separate extensor muscle for the little 
finger, but it is connected with the common extensor of the 
other fingers. 

For the thumb there are three extensors, one of these ris¬ 
ing from the back of the shaft of the radius, and two from the 
hack of the shaft of the ulna. One of the muscles rising from 
the shaft of the ulna controls the extension of the metacarpal 




188 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


portion of the thumb; the extensor rising from the radius con¬ 
nects with the first phalange of the thumb, while the other mus¬ 
cle that rises from the ulna is the long extensor muscle of the 
thumb, and controls the second or end phalange of the thumb. 

We have left to examine only the extensor muscles of the 
wrist or carpus. The carpal extensors, as indicated on the 
plate, are the long and the short wrist extensors, both of them 
lying close to the thumb or radial side of the back of the fore¬ 
arm. 

We find that the most remote muscular control of the 
wrist and hand comes from the lower extremity of the upper 
portion of the arm. In other words, the principal muscles 
controlling the wrist and hand rise from the condyles of the 
humerus. It may be added, by way of review, that the biceps 
and triceps muscles of the upper arm, by means of their 
insertion respectively in the radius and ulna, assist in two forms 
of motion of the wrist. Thus the biceps helps to control the 
supination of the wrist and hand, while the triceps helps direct 
the pronation of the wrist and hand. These two movements 
of the wrist are of importance in a great variety of manual 
activities. 

An observer, watching the countless movements of any 
normally active person’s hand through a day, might conclude 
that the muscles of the hand had so much to do that no especial 
muscular training is needed for the hand. But it would be a 
huge mistake to make such a conclusion. Exercises that pro¬ 
vide for the severe flexing and extension of the hand and 
fingers are of importance in every scheme of physical train¬ 
ing. Consider, for instance, how much is implied by the use of 
the common expression, “a strong grip.” And this grip of 
the pupil can be strengthened greatly by exercises that pro¬ 
vide vigorous and continued activity to the flexor muscles, the 
extensors receiving their share of exercise from movements as 
much opposed as is possible. 

Outside of well-trained gymnasts weak wrists are so com¬ 
mon as almost to be the rule. Exercises that provide for the 
supination and pronation of the wrist—such as movements 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


189 


that twist the wrist rapidly and vigorously—are indicated. Nor 
can the importance of the various forms of “tug” be overlooked 
when the muscular upbuilding of the wrist is attempted. It 
must be borne in mind that weakness at the wrist travesties 
swelling biceps. Of course, the reader must not forget, in 
considering the question of the strength of any set of muscles, 
that the muscles are only the instruments or agents through 
which power is expressed. The real power is in the nervous 
system, as we shall show later. Of course, it cannot be mani¬ 
fested through the muscles if they are undeveloped or otherwise 
incompetent. A strong grip, accordingly, while of course re¬ 
quiring a perfect muscular equipment, really depends upon 
one’s nervous energy, or what people sometimes call con¬ 
stitutional vigor, because it is a matter that depends upon 
the strength of the body as a whole. We know that it depends 
upon the mental effort and the intensity of “mind-strength” 
exerted when gripping tightly with the hand. We usually find 
that persons capable of great mental concentration, men of 
exceptional nervous organization, have very good grips, at least 
when in a fair condition of health and even moderate muscular 
vigor. 

Stand on one leg and raise the other until the thigh, or 
upper part of the leg stands out horizontally forward. Over 
this horizontal thigh run one of the hands along over the front 
—now the upper portion, moving the thigh part slowly up and 
down while continuing the examination with the hand. Carry 
this examination along the center of the front of the upper leg 
from the point where it joins the trunk, at the upper end, to 
the knee, at the lower end of the femur. 

As the leg is kept moving a little up and down the play of 
the muscles under the skin over which the hand is passing will 
be felt. And it will be seen that a compact mass of muscles 
covers the front of the upper leg over its whole length. Indeed, 
this mass of muscle will be found to extend over the sides of the 
femur. Near the knee it will be found that this aggregation 
of muscle unites in a single and very strong tendon. 

For purposes of convenience this great mass of muscle is 




190 


MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


treated as one muscle and is called the quadriceps (four-head¬ 
ed) extensor. It is the great extensor muscle of the leg, and is 
therefore used for straightening the leg. It is the greatest 
factor in the muscular work of walking or running, of cycling, 
of going up or down stairs, or in any movement where the leg 
is alternately bent and straightened. 

While the quadriceps muscle is treated as one, it is divided 
into four muscles, each of which has its appropriate name. The 
four muscles composing the quadriceps are the rectus femoris, 
the vastus externus, the vastus internus and the crureus. Each 
of these muscles has its own head, or point of origin. 

But all of these four branches of the quadriceps unite near 
the knee in a single tendon that is attached to the patella, or 
knee-cap. Thus, through contracting, is the quadriceps able 
to “pull” the leg straight. And it will be understood what 
mischief to locomotion is caused by a fracture of the patella. 

The rectus femoris has its origin in the ilium, or upper ridge 
of the os innominatum, or hip-bone. It passes in a straight 
course downward over the front of the femur. It arises from 
the point of origin in two tendons, which unite, then spread into 
a mass of tendinous fibers. Farther down the muscle becomes 
a broad, thick mass of tendinous fibers and then unites in the 
common tendon of the quadriceps. 

On the side of the femur is the vastus externus, which forms 
the largest part of the quadriceps. Its movements may be felt 
plainly, and it may be distinguished easily from the rectus 
femoris. On the inner side of the leg the vastus internus will 
be found. The crureus, the fourth and remaining muscle of 
the quadriceps, appears to be a part of the vastus internus, but 
in dissection it will readily separate. 

A muscle of which much is heard is the sartorius, or “tailor’s 
muscle.” It has received this latter name because it is much 
used by tailors when they sit cross-legged. This muscle has 
its origin in the upper part of the hip-bone; it crosses obliquely 
over the upper portion of the femur to the inside of the leg. 
Now it descends vertically, and passes behind the inner condyle 
of the femur, and passing into the form of a tendon is attached 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


191 


to the upper part of the inner shaft of the tibia. It is the 
longest muscle in the body. 

Well on the inside of the leg, and toward the back, are the 
adductor muscles, which are used to draw the legs together or 
to draw either leg inward in line with the spine. Whenever, 
from a position of standing with one leg well out at the side, 
you draw it in closer to the other leg, the adductor muscles are 
used, and their motions can be felt through the skin. There 
are three of these adductor muscles, the adductor magnus, 
brevis and longus. All have their origin at the crotch, and they 
extend obliquely to the femur. The magnus is the upper¬ 
most muscle; just below it is the adductor brevis, and below 
that the adductor longus. The three lie together with the 
triangular appearance of an open fan. 

At the back of the leg we must begin with the gluteal mus¬ 
cles. They are nine in number, but it is not necessary here to 
name them separately. These gluteal muscles are all found 
over the buttocks. They perform a variety of muscular work, 
such as adducting and extending the thigh, and also causing it 
to rotate outwards. The gluteals have another important 
function; in conjunction with certain of the back muscles they 
help materially in holding the body erect. 

Behind the thigh-bone are the muscles that act in opposition 
to the quadriceps extensor. The most important of these, 
which serve to flex the knee, are the biceps (two-headed) fe- 
moris, the semi-tendinous and semi-membranous muscles. Of 
the two latter it is enough to say that they aid the biceps femo- 
ris in flexing the knee—that is, causing it to bend. These 
three muscles are known as the “hamstrings,” and their power¬ 
ful tendons may be felt very plainly just above the knee at 
the back of the leg. 

The biceps femoris is a muscle of considerable size. It is 
found at the back and outer edge of the thigh. The main 
attachment of this muscle at its insertion is to the fibula near 
the head, but a slip from the tendon is attached to the shaft of 
the tibia. 

Note, particularly, that the biceps extends obliquely down- 




192 MACFADDEN J S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ward to the side of the leg. Thus, when the biceps is slightly 
contracted, and the knee but half flexed, the knee will point 
outward—or, in other words, be rotated—and this is on account 
of the oblique direction that the biceps takes. 

Passing on to the muscles of the leg below the knee we 
will consider first the tibialis anticus. This is the somewhat 
fleshy muscle that will be felt when running the finger tips 
down over the outer side of the tibia or shin-bone. The work 
of this muscle is to raise the inner edge of the foot. The origin 
of the muscle is at the head of the tibia; it passes vertically 
down over the shin-bone and passes under the annular liga¬ 
ment of the ankle. The muscle ends in a tendon, and its ulti¬ 
mate attachment of insertion is with the metatarsal bone of the 
great toe. 

On the back of the lower leg we find, principally, the two 
muscles that form the calf. These muscles are known as the 
gastrocnemius and the soleus. The gastrocnemius is broad and 
forms the largest part of the calf. The soleus is a broad, flat¬ 
tened muscle lying directly beneath the gastrocnemius. The 
lower tendons—that is, the tendons of insertion—of these two 
muscles unite near the heel to form the strongest tendon in 
the body. This is known as the tendon of Achilles. The size 
and strength of this tendon may be felt through the skin at the 
back of the heel. The tendon is so hard, in fact, that it might 
be mistaken easily for a small bone. 

There is an exact reason for this tendon being the strongest 
in the body. If it were not so it would be difficult to stand, and 
all but impossible to take even the most faltering steps. The 
tendon of Achilles is placed where it is for the purpose of keep¬ 
ing the body in an erect position as the weight of the body is 
thrown on the foot. 

It is time, now, to mention, briefly, the details of the general 
muscular scheme employed in holding the body upright. 

In the leg the muscles employed for this purpose are those 
found at the front and back. At the upper part of the femur 
the work is carried on upward by the gluteal muscles over the 
hip. These, in turn, combine in action with certain muscles of 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


193 


the back, and thus the muscular connection is kept intact until 
the base of the skull is reached. 

On the front of the body there is a slight break in the mus¬ 
cular connection at the head of the thigh, but just past this 
brief interval the work is taken up once more by the vertical 
abdominal muscles, and there is another break in the direct 
muscular connection when the sternum is reached. Beyond, 
however, strong muscles at the front of the neck carry the work 
upward to the head. It requires the co-operation of all these 
muscles in the front and at the back in order to make man dif¬ 
ferent from the lower animals in that he is able to stand and to 
walk in an upright position. 

At a casual glance the foot does not seem to be the seat of 
a very extensive muscular system. We are liable to look upon 
the foot only as a flat-bottomed sort of affair on which to 
stand. Certainly the foot is not capable of as great a variety 
of movements as is the hand. Hence, why should there be as 
many muscles? Why should they be of the same importance as 
the muscles of the hand? 

It must be admitted that a knowledge of the muscles of the 
foot is not as essential as is a knowledge of the muscles of the 
hand. It is equally true that, when a physical trainer gives 
proper attention to the training of the muscles of all other 
parts of the body, the muscles of the foot will be taken good 
care of without especial effort directed to them. 

But a knowledge of the muscles of the foot is of interest 
nevertheless. We depend upon the feet for locomotion, and 
surely that is reason enough for knowing something of the 
muscles of the lowest member of the body. 

In general, it may be said that there is a close relation be¬ 
tween the foot muscles and the hand muscles. In the ape, which 
makes more nearly a similar use of hand and of foot, the simi¬ 
larity of muscular structure is even more pronounced. 

The study of the muscles of the human foot must begin 
with the ankle. We found that at the wrist of the hand there 
is an annular ligament that completely binds the wrist and 
covers and protects the tendons of muscles as they pass into 




194 


MA CFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the hand. At the ankle there is a similar annular ligament, with 
this difference: That, while the annular ligament of the wrist 
consists of two portions—the anterior and posterior—the annu¬ 
lar ligament of the ankle is divided into three portions. The 
anterior annular ligament of the ankle passes transversely over 
the front of the ankle. (See color plate, page 59.) On the # 
outside of the ankle is the external annular ligament, and on 
the inside is the internal annular ligament. 

Treating the ligament as a whole, it may be said that it 
binds down and protects the tendons of the muscles that pass 
under on their way to connection with the muscular system 
proper of the foot. And, at the same time, the blood vessels 
that nourish and the nerves that serve the muscles of the foot 
pass inside this annular ligament. 

Corresponding with the palmar fascia of the hand is the 
plantar fascia of the sole of the foot. This plantar fascia is 
the densest fibrous membrane of the body. It is of great 
strength. The fibers are pearly white and glistening. This 
fascia is divided into a central portion extending to and along 
either edge of the sole. 

The central portion is the thickest and is attached to the 
os calcis, or heel bone. At the rear of the foot this fascia is 
narrow and thick. Farther forward it broadens and becomes 
much thinner. Near the forward extremity of the metatarsal 
bones (the bones of the flat of the foot) this fascia divides into 
five processes, one running to each of the five toes. 

The lateral portions of this plantar fascia cover the outer 
and the inner edges of the foot, and do much to give shape to 
that member. 

The external fascia partly covers the muscle known as the 
abductor minimi digiti (small toe). It is the function of this 
muscle, which extends from the heel bone to the little toe, to 
abduct that toe—that is, to draw it away from its nearest fel¬ 
low. The action of this muscle may be felt very plainly when 
the little toe is made to move sideways from its neighbor. 

In like manner the internal lateral portion of the plantar 
fascia, which is very thin, covers the muscle known as the 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


195 


abductor hallucis, which is the muscle that draws the great toe 
away from the second toe. 

The important muscle of the sole of the foot is known as 
the flexor brevis digitorum. It takes up the whole of the sole 
of the foot that is not occupied by the abductor muscles of the 
great and little toes. Near the metatarsal bones this broad 
muscle, which has its origin in the os calcis, divides into four 
tendons, which proceed to the great toe and to the three other 
toes nearest it. Just where one of these tendons passes into its 
toe it divides into two portions, allowing between the two por¬ 
tions the passage of the tendon of the flexor longus digitorum 
to the end of each toe. 

Curiously enough, as it may seem, it is the upper side of 
the foot that is called the dorsum or back of the foot. But 
when it is considered that the sole is the portion of the foot 
corresponding to the palm of the hand, it will be easy to under¬ 
stand why anatomists denote the upper side of the foot as its 
“back.” And, as the extensor muscles of the hand are found 
in its back, so the extensor muscles of the foot are located on 
the upper side. 

Corresponding to the plantar fascia of the sole is another - 
fascia on the dorsum or upper side of the foot. This is a very 
thin membrane, and on the sides of the foot it blends with the 
lateral portions of the plantar fascia. 

On the top of the foot we find the important muscle to be 
the extensor brevis digitorum, opposing the flexor of the sole. 
This extensor muscle has its origin in the forward, upper and 
outer portion of the os calcis. The muscle passes obliquely 
over the dorsum of the foot, and, like the flexor of the sole, it 
divides and passes into four tendons. Of these the largest ten¬ 
don passes into the great toe, the other three tendons passing 
into the second, third and fourth toes, and proceeding on the 
outer sides of the long extensor tendons of those three toes. 

Just how are the muscles of the foot to be exercised? By 
any one of the numerous forms of locomotion. Walking, run¬ 
ning, swimming, dancing—it is all the same. In ladder climb¬ 
ing it will be understood how the muscles of the feet must be 




196 


MA CFA DDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


employed to advantage. The use of the feet in holding to the 
stirrup of the saddle, or in pressing against the foot-brace of 
the row-boat, are forms of exercise for the muscles of the feet. 

Perhaps one of the most perfect exercises for the feet is 
tree climbing, bare-footed, especially small trees where the 
knees do not hug the trunk of the tree but where the feet are 
used to “walk-up” the side of it, as it were. 

A great deal that is of practical value concerning the work 
that is performed by the muscles of the feet can be learned by 
resting one foot over the knee of the other leg. Move the foot 
in every possible direction, feeling for the muscles that supply 
the desired motion. The muscles may be felt through the skin, 
and their location is easily found. 

The best and most satisfactory treatment that can be given 
to the overstrained, sore muscles of the feet is found in bathing 
them in water as hot as the flesh will endure. While so wash¬ 
ing the feet, knead the overstrained muscles with great thor¬ 
oughness. Then retire immediately for the night’s rest. 

Apart from exercise, the best method of hardening the foot 
muscles is to bathe the feet well in cold salt water on rising in 
the morning, accompanying the bath with vigorous massage of 
the feet while immersed. 

With a good general knowledge of all the important mus¬ 
cles of the body, their location, structure and actions, we shall be 
able to devise appropriate exercises for their healthful employ¬ 
ment, at least where they are not sufficiently used in the every¬ 
day activities of life to keep them in the best condition. We 
know that if our muscles are not used they will atrophy and 
lose their powers, and, furthermore, with such inaction all of 
the other functions of the body will stagnate, and, eventually, 
bring about all manner of abnormal and diseased conditions. 
Without muscular activity the circulation becomes sluggish, the 
functions of assimilation and nutrition are impaired and the 
entire human system loses tone and vigor. In another volume 
we shall take up the subject of exercise for detailed and thor¬ 
ough treatment, offering exercises of every suitable kind for 
every part of the body, not only to strengthen the muscles 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


197 


themselves, but for curative effects and for increasing the store 
of dynamic or nerve-energy of the body. As we have said, we 
can accomplish innumerable results in improving the welfare 
of the body by the use of the voluntary muscular system, this 
being perfectly within the control of the will. 

The benefit of exercise to the involuntary muscles comes 
from the fact that the free use of the voluntary muscles forces 
the involuntary muscles to greater activity through greater 
demands upon the respiratory, circulating and digestive organs 
and vessels. Thus, exercise is of direct and instant value to the 
health, activity and strength of all of the general organs. 
These, in turn, through their greater and purer activity in 
eliminating waste and in supplying nutriment, return incal¬ 
culable benefit to all of the voluntary muscles by building them 
up with fresher material. 


Vol. 1—14 




CHAPTER VII. 


THE SPINAL CORD AND THE NERVOUS 
SYSTEM. 



HE special and careful attention of the reader is in¬ 


vited to the study and consideration of this chapter 


because of the great importance of the spinal cord and 


the nervous system in the Science of Physcultopathy. If one 
were given the privilege of making a study of only one part of 
the body to the exclusion of all others, supposing that it were 
possible to study any one part independent of its relationships, 
then the student of health would do well to concentrate his at¬ 
tention upon the nerves and the great nerve centers. As I 
have already explained, and shall later show even more clearly, 
the secret of human power lies in the spinal cord, the brain 
and the nervous system generally. It is one of the great privi¬ 
leges as well as one of the purposes of Physcultopathy to teach 
how most effectually and perfectly the dynamic energy of the 
body, stored in the spine and brain, may be increased, and 
the muscles and organs be given a greater degree of power and 
efficiency. 

An intimate and thorough knowledge of the anatomical as¬ 
pects of the spine and nerve centers is the first essential to the 
intelligent and successful application of the principles of this 
modern and rational system of overcoming disease and build¬ 
ing vigorous health. Much can be done for improving health 
by living a natural, outdoor life, but it is obvious that infinitely 
greater results can be obtained with the help of a clear under¬ 
standing of the nature and requirements of every part of the 
body, this being particularly true with reference to those who 
are weak and ailing. By knowing something about the spine 
and nerve centers, and their relations to the various other parts 
of the body, not only can we increase the power and energy of 
the body as a whole, but by directing our treatment to the nerve 
centers that control certain parts of the body we can directly 
influence those parts for their respective benefit. 

The longer and the more thoroughly we study the structure 


19S 


PLATE D 



* V' \ \v 

VERTICAL CROSS SECTION THROUGH THE CENTER OF HEAD AND NECK. 


_A-G. Neck (cervical) vertebrae. 
I-II-III. Vertebrae of Thorax. 

Brain. 

1. Frontal lobe. 

2. Parietal lobe. 

3. Occipital. 

4. Corpus callosum. 

5. Septum lucidum. 

6. Pituitary body. 

7. Pons varolii. 

8. Medulla oblongata, 
ft. Arbor vitas. 


lft. Cerebellum. 

11. Spinal canal. 

12. Opening for spinal nerves. 

Nasal Cavity. 

13. Nasal bone. 

14. Superior meatus. 

15. Median meatus. 

16. Inferior meatus. 

Cavity of the Mouth. 

17. Hard palate. 

18. Soft palate. 


19. Lower jaw. 

20. Muscle of the tongue. 

21. Hyoid bone. 

22. Tendons. 

23. Tonsil. 

24. Nasal cavity. 

25. Epiglottis. 

26. Glottis. 

27. Trachea. 

28. Thyroid gland. 

29. Pharynx. 

30. Esophagus. 















































. 



























OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


201 


and functions of the human body, the more clear and absolute 
becomes the conviction that the secret of human strength and 
energy lies in the nervous system, the great central office repre¬ 
sented by the spinal cord and brain serving as a store house, 
as it were, for the dynamic energy which is expressed through 
all of the tissues and organs of the human system. 

At the very best, life is an unfathomable mystery, one which 
neither we nor any one else can hope to solve. We cannot pre¬ 
sume to say just what this mysterious force of life is. 
As we have previously stated, it is possible to diminish 
this energy by unwholesome habits and conditions of life 
and also to increase it by Physcultopathic methods. Whether 
this mysterious force of life is electricity or not, or whether 
it be a form of electrical energy, we at least know that 
it is not unlike electricity in many respects. We may call it 
nerve-force or vitality or electricity, or whatever we choose. 
We do not know just what it is, but we do know that it exists 
and there can no longer be any reasonable doubt that it is cen¬ 
tered in the nervous system. Although this is not clearly un¬ 
derstood by the general public, yet one might think that it was 
partially recognized in colloquial terminology by the very com¬ 
mon use of the expression, “nervous energy.” When we speak 
of a person who seems to be tireless, possessed of a fund of 
working power that seems almost without limit, we make com¬ 
ment upon his having an unusual amount of. “nervous energy.” 
What do we mean by that? It appears to be almost an instinc¬ 
tive or intuitive appreciation of the fact that strength and en¬ 
ergy are not resident in the muscles or other tissues of the 
body, but in the nervous system. 

An interesting fact, confirming the truth of our conclu¬ 
sions, is found in the peculiarities of athletic success. One 
might otherwise expect that sheer bulk of muscle would pre¬ 
dominate, but, on the contrary, we have continuously noted 
that the victor in most athletic contests is not so much a man 
of remarkable muscular bulk as of exceptional nervous 
strength. The nervous temperament, so-called, when prop¬ 
erly balanced and supported by a normal and vigorous bodily 





202 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


development, makes the successful athlete. Who has not seen 
a man with spindling legs and apparently slight, wiry muscles 
outrun an entire field of more heavily muscled men, both in 
short dashes and in distance runs? Such a man is usually cap¬ 
able of an exceptional degree of speed and endurance. And 
who has not occasionally seen a man of a hundred and forty 
pounds accomplish some feat of strength that others weighing 
two hundred pounds could not duplicate? And among athletes 
of the same weight and apparent muscular development, who 
has not seen one so far outstrip the others in strength, endur¬ 
ance and general muscular efficiency that he seemed to be in 
a different class? What is the reason? Muscular develop¬ 
ment? No. There are differences in the muscular fiber and 
quality of different individuals, but not to the extent of ac¬ 
counting for the remarkable variations in strength. The secret 
of these differences lies in their respective nervous systems and 
in the amount of dynamic or electrical energy stored up 
there. This will also explain, in a way, the variations in the 
strength of the same individual noted on different occasions, 
even though his muscles are of the same bulk and apparent 
condition. At one time he will have a greater amount of en¬ 
ergy or nerve-force stored away in his brain and spine than at 
another. 

Mental concentration in muscular effort is another fact 
which should indicate the source of energy. Every one 
knows that it is the man who can get his mind into his effort 
who can accomplish the most in a lift or a feat of strength. 
Those who are accustomed to athletic endeavors will under¬ 
stand this very readily, from their own consciousness of the 
sensations of extreme muscular effort. Did you every try, 
reader, to exert yourself to your full strength in the effort to 
accomplish some difficult piece of work, and then find that you 
would have to do even more than that, and have you then 
gathered together all your forces, as it were, and made a sec¬ 
ond attempt in which you knew that you would have to do 
twenty-five per cent, better, and in which you actually did do 
that much better, in order successfully to accomplish your pur- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


203 


pose? If you have ever done this you will recall that the effort 
was largely a mental effort, that you entered into the final at¬ 
tempt with what you would call an inflexible determination or 
power of will, and that by this means you succeeded. But this 
expression of will-power, or mental determination, should 
show very clearly the nature of the power that did the work. 
Indeed, you can almost “feel” that this is true when you exert 
yourself, if you are alert and conscious of your sensations at 
the time. You realize that it is a matter of mental applica¬ 
tion and nerve-force; that you do it by putting your mind'into 
your muscles. 

It has been thought that energy is generated in the mus¬ 
cles, but we know that the muscles are powerless to act without 
the impulses from the nerves. Then is not the power that 
moves them the electrical or motive force that comes from the 
brain and spine? The theory was that the union of oxygen 
with the tissues of the muscles, producing combustion, liber¬ 
ated energy just as it is liberated in the combustion of wood 
and coal by fire, resulting in heat. We know that heat is gen¬ 
erated in the process of muscular action, but it would appear 
from our more ripe and modern study of the subject that this 
is probably incidental rather than the cause of the manifes¬ 
tation of energy known as muscular strength. We also know 
that waste matter is consumed by chemical union with oxygen, 
forming carbon dioxide, or carbonic acid, as it is more popu¬ 
larly known, among other things, this combustion producing 
heat. It would appear, also, that the breaking down of mus¬ 
cular tissue which gives rise to this waste matter is only in¬ 
cidental rather than the cause of the expression of energy. As 
already said, we know that the muscles do not and cannot act 
of themselves, but only through the nerve impulses transmit¬ 
ted from the brain, and we can scarcely avoid the conclusion 
that the actual power which operates in these tissues is the elec¬ 
trical force or dynamic energy which comes from the spine and 
brain, which serves as a storage battery, and which, when partly 
exhausted, is regained through the building up and revitalizing 
processes of sleep. The oxygen of respiration carries with it 




204 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


an electrical charge which, when carried through all of the 
tissues of the body by the blood, is absorbed by the millions of 
nerve branches permeating every tissue, and stored away in 
the spine. 

The muscles and nerve fibers are the instruments through 
which this power is manifested. We may compare the organic 
and muscular system of the body to an engine, the agency 
through which power is expressed, while the power itself is the 
expanding force of steam or the explosive energy of gasoline. 
Better yet, we may compare the body to a collection of per¬ 
fectly constructed electrical motors, these being incapable of 
anything in themselves, but marvellously efficient when sup¬ 
plied with a current of electricity. In our own body, the mus¬ 
cles and organs are the motors and the nerves the live wires, 
while the brain and spinal column are like a storage battery, 
except for being far more wonderful, delicate and powerful in 
proportion to their weight. 

This storage battery of the body, unlike the electrical de¬ 
vices which we know, is not ordinarily completely exhausted. 
There is always sufficient vitalit}^ or electrical energy left in 
the body to keep up the action of the heart and lungs and 
such other vital processes as are necessary during sleep to re¬ 
build the wastes and to store up further energy for the suc¬ 
ceeding waking hours. Before absolute exhaustion of this 
store of electrical power or nerve-force comes upon us we feel 
the necessity for sleep, thus giving the brain a rest. 

This rest of the brain and nervous system, as will be ap¬ 
parent at once, is a matter of vital and utter necessity, where¬ 
as we know from the constant beating of the heart and the un¬ 
interrupted action of the muscles involved in respiration, that 
there need be no such complete rest for the muscular tissues. 
It is because the actual source of energy and power is to be 
found in the brain and spine that we require the unconscious¬ 
ness and rest of sleep. It is true that a certain degree of 
nerve force is expended even in sleep, in continuing the action 
of the heart and respiratory muscles? but this is insignificant 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


205 


compared with the phenomenal outlays of energy known dur¬ 
ing the waking hours. 

Now that we have elucidated the importance of the intricate 
mechanism of the brain and nervous system, the vital and 
dominating factor of human life, we will consider its remark¬ 
able anatomical structure. 

It consists of two kinds of nerve tissue—first, gray matter 
or nerve cells, and second, white matter, composed of nerve 
fibers and end-organs. In the gray matter or nerve cells is the 
central source of nerve energy, the white nerve fibers are the 
wires over which this is sent, while the end-organs, which I shall 
refer to later, are specialized apparatus for the immediate 
transmitting or receiving of impulse for motion or sensation. 

The whole nervous system of the body may be compared to 
a telephone system; the gray matter, the central offices; the 
white matter, the wires; and the end-organs, the local tele¬ 
phones. The gray matter or central offices, like a telephone sys¬ 
tem, has one great exchange and many smaller ones. The 
great central exchange is known as the brain, while the 
smaller ones are such as are found along the spinal cord, 
and many other parts of the body, in the form of small 
lumps of gray matter called ganglia. In the white matter— 
the nerve fibers or wires—we have the same simile carried out, 
for we find single fibers or wires going to certain end-organs or 
local phones, as well as large cables or bunches of wires pass¬ 
ing along through the body, giving off here and there one or 
more wires; the greatest example of which is the spinal cord. 

In our discussion of the nervous system, we will take up, 
first, the separate divisions of this great human telephone sys¬ 
tem, and when these are described it will be my endeavor to ex¬ 
plain in‘what manner and to what end the whole works as 
a unit. 

The Brain. —First and foremost in this description comes 
the brain, which is like a great central telephone office, and 
which occupies the whole interior of the same. It is easily 
divided for purposes of description into three parts: the cere¬ 
brum, or fore-brain, the cerebellum, or hind-brain, and the me- 




206 


MAC FAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Section Through the Skull, with a View of a Cross Section of the Cerebrum. 

a. Skull. 

b. Dura mater. 

c. Cerebral hemisphere. 

d. Parietal lobe. 

e. Corpus callosum, 

dulla or connecting link between the above two parts and the 
spinal cord, or great cable. The cerebrum, or fore-brain, oc¬ 
cupies all that portion of the skull situated about the level of 
the openings of the ear. It is held in place by a stout white fib¬ 
rous membrane, which encloses it in a firm, elastic case by which 
it is attached to various places in the interior of the skull. It 
rests upon the floor of the skull from the forehead as far back 
as the rear of the ears, and thence to the back of the skull it 
is supported by a strong, fibrous membrane which is known 
under the name of the roof of the cerebellum. This membrane 
separates the fore-brain from the hind-brain. These are also 
sometimes called the “upper-brain” and “lower-brain.” 

The cerebrum or fore-brain is roughly of the shape of half 
a walnut kernel, its average weight being forty-nine ounces, in 
man, while the brain of the average woman weighs five ounces 
less. It is soft, easily torn, and is held together for the most 
part by a very fine network of elastic fiber which permeates all 






OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


207 


its parts. The gray matter or nerve cells of this part of the 
brain is found in a layer of about one quarter of an inch in 
thickness all over its surface. This surface is not smooth, but 
is thrown into multitudes of tiny hills and valleys, a good deal 
like the markings on the surface of the walnut kernel previ¬ 
ously mentioned. This formation is for the purpose of mak¬ 
ing a larger extent of surface than if the exterior were smooth. 

The rest of the fore-brain, or the inner portion of it, is com¬ 
posed of white nerve fibers which connect not only this brain 
with the hind-brain or cerebellum, but also with the spinal cord, 
and also each portion of the cerebrum with every other portion 
thereof. The cerebrum is divided by a large fissure, running 
from the front backward, into two equal parts, lying one on 
each side of the cavity of the skull; these are called hemispheres. 
Between these two 
hemispheres we have a 
band of white nerve 
fibers, running trans¬ 
versely, which connects 
the two sides of the 
cerebrum together. 

This band is known 
under the name 
of the “hard body.” 

Then there are bands 
of white nerve fibers 
passing from one por¬ 
tion of each side of the 
cerebrum to other por¬ 
tions of the same side, 
and also running down¬ 
ward from each half of 
the cerebrum in the 
form of a cable which 

afterwards divides into Photograph of Brain From Above. 

B-A. Right and left cerebral hemispheres, 
two cables, one con- C..^edian fissure. 

necting with the hind- f• £"$ 4 ', \° 0 b b e e 









208 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


brain, the other with the medulla, and this cable is known as the 
arms of the cerebrum. In each half of the cerebrum there is a 
large irregular space known as a ventricle, which is more or less 
filled with fluid known as cerebro-spinal fluid. This cavity is a 
water cushion, and is for the purpose of taking up any and all 
shocks which may come to the brain, and of making them harm¬ 
less to that tissue. 

The gray or surface matter, or nerve cells of the cerebrum, 
are definitely localized in their working abilities or powers. In 
other words, there are points in various portions of the brain 
which are invariably the surface of the centers of the produc¬ 
tion, either of impulses, the reception of sensation, or the con¬ 
ceptions of special sense. To know the location of these centers 
in a general way should be of great interest. The region of the 
surface of each half of the cerebrum situated immediately above 
and a little behind the ear contains the centers of action for vol¬ 
untary motion of muscles of the face, limbs, and trunk of the 
body. 

Just here a very interesting fact should be noticed, that is, 
that the centers of the left side in this region govern the volun¬ 
tary motion of the left side of the face and that of the limbs 
and trunk of the right side of the body. Those on the right 
side of the brain in the same region control the right side of 
the face and the left side of the body. The gray matter cover¬ 
ing those ends of the two halves of the fore-brain situated be¬ 
hind the forehead is the localized center of the intellectual facul¬ 
ties, while the gray matter covering the rear ends of these 
two halves contains the following nerve centers: First, that con¬ 
trolling vision or eyesight; second, the original center for 
speech; third, the primary nerve origin of the sense of smell, 
and the function of reasoning known as memory. The special 
nerve center for the sense of hearing is behind each ear. 

When one remembers the description of the multitude of 
nerve fibers connecting the various portions of this brain with 
each other, it is easy to conceive the means by which harmony 

and equilibrium of the workings of both sides of the body and 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


209 


the mutual activity of the double organs of special sense is ac¬ 
complished. 

The Cerebellum, or Hind-Brain,, is situated in the rear, 
lower portion of the skull; below the posterior half of the cere¬ 
brum or fore-brain. It is separated from the latter by a strong 
partition of fibrous material, extending from the back of the 
skull to the middle of its base. Lying, as the partition does, 
horizontally, it forms the rear part of the floor which supports 
the cerebrum, constituting at the same time the roof of the 
cerebellum. 

The hind-brain, like the fore-brain, is divided into two hemi¬ 
spheres or lateral halves, and these are connected by transverse 
bundles of nerve, fibers with each other. Besides this con¬ 
nection, each half of the cerebellum is connected in a similar 
manner with the hemisphere of the cerebrum on the same side 
above, and with the medulla below. Resembling the cerebrum, 
the hind-brain is formed with the gray matter or nerve cells 
on the outside thrown into folds or convolutions which, how¬ 
ever, are not so numerous nor so deep as those of the fore- 
brain. The nerve fibers (or white material) are situated in the 
interior cerebellum and give the appearance, on section, of a 
tree trunk with leafless branches. This has been called in 
Latin, “The Tree of Life.” This mass of nerve fibers is made 
up of radiating fibers from those connections between the 
cerebellum and other parts previously mentioned. In the cere¬ 
bellum there are no ventricles or water cushions as have been 
described as occurring in the cerebrum. 

In this hind-brain are located the centers of voluntary mo¬ 
tion of a peculiar order. Here we find the source of that en¬ 
ergy which causes the control of movements which are espe¬ 
cially concerned in progression and the maintenance of equil¬ 
ibrium. This control is somewhat sub-voluntary in its action, 
as only the start in walking is consciously voluntary. The 
same is true of equilibrium or muscular harmony. Besides 
these functions, the cerebellum acts as a sort of a relay or way 
station for impulses going in both directions. 





Under Surface of the Brain. 


A-B. Frontal lobes. 

C-D. Temporal lobes. 

E. Pons Varolii. 

F-G. Cerebellum. 

H. Crurra cerebri. 

I. Peduncles of the cerebellum. 


K. Medulla oblongata. 

L. Spinal cord. 

M. ^Pituitary body. 

N. Optic nerves. 

O. Olfactory nerves. 


210 







PHYSICAL CULTURE 


211 


The Medulla is the connecting link between the brain and 
spinal cord, and is really a modified portion of the latter. This 
is often called the medulla oblongata, because of its form. In 
our study of Physcultopathy we should pay special attention to 
the medulla and the spinal cord, because of their more inti¬ 
mate relation to the condition of our physical energy, rather 
than to the cerebrum. We shall refer to the reason for this 
later. The medulla differs from the cord mainly in its shape 
and in the fact that it contains a set of higher class nerve cen¬ 
ters. It is situated below and in front of the cerebellum. It 
is about tw r o inches in length and commences at the juncture 
of the brain and the spinal cord at an orifice in the base of the 
skull. In it are contained the following great nerve centers: 
First, that which controls the muscular activity of the head; 
second, the energizing center for respiration; and, third, the 
center for articulate speech. 

All parts of the brain, as previously described, are support¬ 
ed, protected and suspended in their place and divided from 
each other by a dense, white fibrous membrane, known as the 
dura mater . The brain tissue is so soft, that without such sup¬ 
port it would simply fall apart. Enclosed as it is in the bony 
cavity of the skull, it needs to be supported in such a manner as 
to be protected from sudden jars and shocks. The bony skull 
itself is built in such a manner and of such material, that only 
under exceptional violence does it fail to prevent injurious 
jarring or direct injury to the brain tissue. Underlying the 
fibrous covering or dura mater, we find a sac-like membrane 
resembling in its formation the pleura (which covers the lungs) 
and carrying a vast net-work of blood-vessels which penetrate 
to all portions of the brain and nourish its tissue. This mem¬ 
branous sac is called the pia mater and invests the brain in all 
its parts with a double layer. The opposing surfaces of these 
layers are smooth, shiny and covered with a lubricating secre¬ 
tion, for the purpose of allowing free, frictionless movement of 
the brain in all directions. On the under surface of the brain 
may be seen the various nerves of special sense making their 
exit from its substance. Under the fore-part of the cere- 




212 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


brum, beginning in front, one sees first the two olfactory bulbs 
from which arise about twenty nerves of smell on each side. 
These latter penetrate the floor of the skull going straight 
downward to be distributed to the membrane which lines the 
upper cavity. Next in order comes the optic nerve, that of 
the sense of sight, arising directly behind the orbits and pro¬ 
ceeding through holes in the skull, one to each orbit, to be dis¬ 
tributed to the eye. The nerve last mentioned has a peculiarity 
not noticed in the other nerves of special sense, in that before 
entering the orbits, the fibers mix together so that in each optic 
nerve we have fibers from both sides of the brain running to 
each eye, thus producing harmonious action between the two 
eyes. 

The Spinal Cord is the cylindrical, elongated part of the 
cerebro-spinal system, which is contained in the spinal column 
or back-bone. It extends from the base of the skull, where it 
connects with the brain, through the medulla, to the upper 
border of the small of the back, where it terminates in a num¬ 
ber of nerve fibers which pass down the balance of the spinal 
canal, below the termination of the spinal cord. These nerves 
are so disposed as to resemble in appearance the tail of a horse 
and are called in the Latin language, “the horse’s tail.” The 
length of the spinal cord proper is usually about sixteen or 
seventeen inches, its weight being about one ounce and one- 
half. It does not nearly fill the canal in the back-bone in which 
it is located, but is surrounded and separated from the bony 
walls of this canal by a supporting and protecting membrane 
(similar to that surrounding the brain), loose connective tissue 
and a net-work of veins. 

The shape of the spinal cord varies considerably, according 
to the part of the back-bone which it occupies. In the region 
of the neck, the diameter of the cord is greater from side to 
side than from front to back, and all its diameters are greater 
in this region than elsewhere. At the middle of the back of 
the chest all the diameters of the cord are smaller than any¬ 
where else in its length, and are about equal to each other. 
Below the chest the cord again widens from side to side, but al- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


213 


though larger in every way than in the chest region it is much 
smaller than in the neck. 

The material of which the spinal cord is constructed is ex¬ 
actly the same as that which constitutes the brain. However, 
in this region of the spinal cord, the component parts are ar¬ 
ranged in exactly the opposite way to that in which they are 
put together in the brain. In the cord, the white material or 
nerve fibers, instead of being in the inside as in the brain, com¬ 
poses the outer portion of the cord, while the gray matter is 
located in the center, never appearing on the surface, and only 
to be seen on cross sections of the cord. When a transverse cut 
is made of this organ, the gray matter appears in the center, 
disposed roughly in the shape of a butterfly, the tips of the 
wings barely touching the circumference of the cord. The 
amount of gray matter in proportion to the white varies great¬ 
ly in different parts of the cord. 

On examining the surface of the spinal cord, one finds on 
its anterior portion, a fissure running the whole length of the 
cord, up and down. This fissure is just deep enough to barely 
reach the gray matter of the cord. In the middle of the pos¬ 
terior surface, one may see another longitudinal fissure, also 
extending the whole length, but deeper than the anterior one. 
These two fissures divide the cord into two lateral halves which 
are connected to each other by the gray matter. The gray mat- 



1. Spine at neck. 2. Spine below center of shoulders. 3. Spine at lumbar region. 


Photograph Showing Spinal Cord at Different Portions of Spinal Column. 

In each photograph, a represents central canal, b ventral horn of gray matter, 
c dorsal horn of gray matter, d white substance. 










The Spine and Important 
Branches of the Nervous 
System. 

A. Cervical Nerves. 

1-4. First to fourth cervicals 

B. Thoracic Nerves. 

5-9. Brachial plexus. 

10. Second dorsal. 

11. Third dorsal, 
a-b. Phrenic nerve. 


C. Lumbar Nerves. 

12-15. First to fourth lumbar. 

D. Sacral Nerves. 

16. Fifth lumbar. 

17-22. First to sixth sacral. 

E. Shows form of connection 
with the sympathetic system. 



214 












PH YSICA L C ULT UR E 


215 


ter of the cord, like the gray matter of the brain, is a mass of 
nerve centers for the origin or reception of nervous impulses. 
Reverting to the simile made use of in previous installments 
on this subject, these nerve centers in the cord may be com¬ 
pared to local telephone exchanges. 

The white matter of the cord consists of bundles of nerve 
fibers running up and down this organ. These bundles may be 
divided into three classes, regarding the work they do, namely, 
those which are continuous fibers from the brain through the 
cord and out again to some organ of the body; those which start 
from some nerve center of the gray matter of the cord and run 
upward or downward to some other nerve center of the cord or 
brain; and those which, originating in some nerve center of the 
cord, pass downward and outward to some tissue of the body. 
Again, these nerve fibers of the cord may be divided into two 
classes in regard to the character of the nerve impulse which 
they carry, namely, first, motor nerves, which carry impulses 
for motion from the cord to the tissues of the body; second, 
sensory nerves, which carry impulses of sensation from the tis¬ 
sues of the body to the cord. 

This nerve fiber material of the cord can, therefore, be com¬ 
pared to the largest or most central telephone cable in a coun¬ 
try, which not only connects the central telephone exchange 
with all the smaller local exchanges, but connects those local 
exchanges with each other and sends out smaller cables into dif¬ 
ferent parts of the country to connect the local phones with the 
local exchanges and, through them, with each other. 

As the spinal cord passes down the length of the canal in 
the back-bone, it gives off bundles of nerve fibers which pass 
out from this canal through openings in the side walls of the 
bony cavity. These are the local telephone cables, leaving the 
local exchanges to spread their wires through the country. 
They are technically called Spinal Nerves and each one arises 
by two roots or bundles from the side of the spinal cord. These 
roots are on the same level but placed one behind the other. 
The one in front is called the anterior root and carries nerve 
fibers for the transmission of motor impulses only. The one 

voi. a—is 




I 



Fifth Cranial Nerve and Its Principal Branches. 

I. First Branch (sensory). 

1. Supra-orbital. 

2. Supra-trochlear. 

3. Lachrymal. 

4. Infra-trochlear. 

II. Second Branch (sensory). 

5 . 6. Orbital. 

7. Lower eyelid branch. 

8. Nasal and upper lip branch. 

9. Anterior dental. 

10. Posterior d-ental. 

11. Separate nerve to the wisdom tooth. 

III. Third Branch. 

12. Principal group of motor branches. 

13. Branch to tongue. 

14. Submaxillary ganglion. 

15. Branch to teeth of lower jaw. 

16. Branch to chin. 

17. Branch to lower lip. 

18. Optic nerve. 


216 









PHYSICAL CULTURE 


217 


towards the rear is called the posterior root and carries fibers 
for the transmission of sensory impulses only. These two 
bundles of nerve fibers or roots, shortly after emerging from 
the cord, mingle their fibers with one bundle called a spinal 
nerve. All along the course of the cord, these spinal nerves 
arise and issue in pairs, one (bv two roots) on each side of the 
cord. The spinal nerves, therefore, are symmetrically placed 
on each side of the back-bone, and, in number, correspond to 
the number of the vertebrae or bony sections of the back-bone 
from the skull to the small of the back. 

After their emergence from the back-bone, numbers of 
these spinal nerves on each side mingle their fibers together 
on the same side, and again split up into bundles of nerve fibers 
which are distributed to every part and tissue of the body. This 
commingling of the nerve fibers just described is called a 
nerve plexus, and these plexi are given specific names accord¬ 
ing to the region of the spinal column near which they are 
located. 

After a nerve reaches a tissue for which it is destined, it 
splits up into its separate fibers and each one of these proceeds 
to the special piece of tissue which it is intended to serve. Here, 
at its final end, there is a specialization of the nerve fiber, called 
an “end-organ,” which may be compared to the terminus of a 
telephone line. This end-organ is so specially constituted in 
each and every portion of the human anatomy as to be capable 
of doing one and only one of the following special pieces of 
work: First, it may be intended to communicate energy of 
motion to a muscular fiber; second, to receive sensations of 
feeling or pain; third, to recognize sensations of special sense, 
such as light, heat, sound, smell and taste. 

All of the nerves proceeding from the brain and from the 
spinal cord exist in pairs, one nerve of each pair proceeding on 
either side of the body. 

Of the cranial nerves, which proceed from the brain, there 
are twelve pairs, classified as follows: 

First pair.—The olfactory nerves, ending in branches 





The Nervous System* 

1. The Cranial Nerves. 

I. Olfactory. 

II. Optic. 

III. Oculomotor. 

IV. Pathetic. 

V. Trigeminus. 

a. Ophthalmic. 

b. Superior maxillary. 

c. Inferior maxillary, 
d-e. Dentals. 

f. Frontals. 

VI. Abducens. 

VII. Facial. 

H-VIII. Auditory. 

i-IX. Glosso-pharyngeal. 

2. Sympathetic Nerves. 

I. Cervical ganglia (1-3). 

II. Thoracic ganglia (1-12). 

III. Lumbar ganglia (1-5). 

IV. Sacral ganglia (1-5). 

V. Coccygeal ganglion. 

VI. Plexus. 

Via. Carotid. 

VIb. Cardiac. 

VIc-e. Plexus of alimentary tract. 


218 


PHYSICAL CULTURE 


219 


throughout the lining of the nerve. These nerves are sensory, 
and report to the brain the impressions of odor. 

Second pair.—Optic nerves; sensory; inform the brain what 
the eyes see. 

Third, fourth and sixth pairs.—Motor nerves that control 
the movements of the muscles of the eye. 

Fifth pair.—Each nerve of this pair divides into three 
branches. Hence this is called the tri-facial. First branch, 
sensory, and gives sensibility to eyeball. Second branch im¬ 
parts sensibility to nose, gums and cheeks. Third branch, partly 
sensory and partly motor, controls sensation on front part of 
tongue, on inner side of cheek, on the teeth and on the scalp in 
front of the ear. 

Seventh pair.—The facial nerves, motor, spread their 
branches over the muscles of the face and control their move¬ 
ments. 

Eighth pair.—Auditory nerves, sensory, are the nerves 
used in hearing. 

The ninth, tenth and eleventh pairs of nerves all have 
their origin in the medulla oblongata. 

Ninth pair.—Two branches; one, sensory, spreads over 
back part of tongue, controlling taste at that point; other 
branch, motor, directs the swallowing muscles. 

Tenth pair.—The pneumogastric nerves, motor and 
sensory. Pass to the stomach, sending off branches to heart, 
lungs, larynx and throat. One of the most important nerves 
in the body. 

Eleventh pair.—The spinal accessory nerves; motor. Con¬ 
trol muscles of neck and back. 

Twelfth pair.—The hypoglossal nerves. Extend to mus¬ 
cles of tongue and direct them in the movements of speech. 

Of the spinal nerves there are thirty-one pairs. These 
nerves proceed through small openings between the vertebrae. 
Each nerve has two roots, as we have already seen, one pro¬ 
ceeding from the front of the spinal cord and the other from 
its rear. The roots proceeding from the front part of the spinal 
cord, as you will remember, furnish the motor nerves; those 




220 


MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


from the rear the sensory nerves. If the front root be severed 
the power of moving the muscles that it controls is lost; if the 
back root be severed the faculty of sensation is lost in the por¬ 
tion of the body dominated by this sensory nerve. All of these 
nerves divide and subdivide, reaching out in an intricate branch¬ 
ing to all parts of the body. 

These thirty-one pairs of nerves are divided, according to 
location, as follows: 

Eight upper spinal or cervical nerves, twelve dorsal, five 
lumbar, five sacral and one coccygeal. You will, of course, re¬ 
member about the cervical, dorsal and lumbar divisions of the 
bony spinal column and also the nature and location of the 
sacrum and the coccyx. 

Before proceeding further with the study of the spinal 
nerves it is necessary to define a “plexus.” This may be a net¬ 
work either of nerves or of veins. In this chapter a nerve 
plexus is meant. 

Of the cervical nerves the four upper pairs interlace to form 
the cervical plexus. From this plexus motor nerves are sent 
to the nearby muscles; sensory nerves are distributed to the 
skin of the back of the head, of the outer ear, neck and the top 
of the chest and shoulders. A branch of this plexus, the phrenic 
nerve, passes down to the pericardium of the heart, and sends 
motor nerves to the diaphragm. The four lower cervical nerves 
form the brachial plexus, which sends sensory branches to the 
shoulder, the upper part of the chest and the skin of the arm, 
and motor branches to the muscles of the shoulder, arm and 
hand. Branches of this plexus are the median nerve and the 
ulnar nerve, which supply the sense of touch to the fingers and 
hand. 

The first dorsal nerve is a part of the brachial plexus, and 
it supplies sense and motion also to the first intercostal mus¬ 
cle. The eleven other dorsal nerves are also intercostal nerves, 
and they communicate, as well with the sympathetic system 
and with the muscles of the walls of the chest and those of the 
sides and front of the abdomen. 

The four upper lumbar nerves comprise the lumbar plexus. 







The Nervous System. 

1. Cerebrum. 

2. Cerebellum. 

3. Medulla ob¬ 
longata. 

4. Cervical (neck 
nerves). 

5. Spinal cord. 

6. Thoracic 
nerves. 

7. Phrenic nerve 
(to diaphragm). 

8. Brachial plex¬ 
us. 

9. Palmar nerves. 

10. Nerves of back 
of hand. 

11. Intercostal 
nerves. 

12. Sciatic plexus. 

13. Sciatic nerve. 

14. Terminal fila¬ 
ment. 

15. Plexus of the 
leg and foot. 





221 




222 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Its branches go to the muscles and skin of the lower front of 
the abdomen, of the hip, outer side of thigh, hip and knee- 
joints and outer border of leg and foot. The last lumbar and 
four upper sacral nerves combine to form the sacral plexus, 
which sends motor nerves to the gluteal muscles, which, as you 
remember, are those of the rump, and to those of the back of 
the thigh, leg and foot. From this same plexus come sensory 
nerves for the skin at the back of the hip and thigh, for the 
front, outer side and back of the leg, and as well for the back 
and sole of the foot. 

The Sympathetic Nervous System of the body, al¬ 
though as widely distributed as the cerebro-spinal system, or 
even more so, is infinitely less generally understood even by 
scientific men. 

It has been considered, for ages, to be the source of the 
sympathetic workings of the internal organs of the body, and 
the seat of human feelings or passions, hence its name. This 
statement, however, is no more true of the sympathetic sys¬ 
tem than the cerebro-spinal. 

The sympathetic system, so-called, consists of two parts: 
First, ganglia, which are small masses of nerve cells, gray in 
color; and, second, nerve fibers, also gray in color. 

The main or central sets of ganglia are situated symmetri¬ 
cally on each side of the spinal column, within the cavities of 
the body. They are not as numerous as the spinal vertebrae, 
and are situated as follows: In the head there are four on 
each side, and one additional single one; in the region of the 
neck there are three pairs; in the dorsal or chest region, twelve 
on each side; in the lumbar region or loins, there are four 
pairs, and in the pelvis there are five on each side and one single 
one. 

These ganglia, or masses of gray cells, are connected with 
each other not only up and down in the body, but across in 
front of the spinal column. In other words, each ganglion is 
not only connected by a nerve with the next one above it and 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


223 


the one immediately below it, but also with its fellow of the 
opposite side. Thus we see that all these ganglia, which are 
located in pairs along the sides of the spinal column, from the 
brain to the lower tip of the spine—from the single one at the 
top, which is situated directly at the under surface of the brain, 
to the single one on the pelvis directly in front of the tip of 
the spine—are all connected with each other in every conceiv¬ 
able way. 

Besides those ganglia already mentioned there is a subsidi¬ 
ary series of similar ganglia situated in the cavities of the body, 
being generally placed near or upon some one of the greater 
blood vessels. 

Still further, there are large numbers of still smaller gan¬ 
glia, yet more secondary in character, scattered all over the 
body in the various tissues. They are found in the heart, in 
the liver, in the spleen, in the kidneys, in the lungs, in the brain, 
between the voluntary muscles under the skin, close to the se¬ 
creting glands of the body, between the coats of the stomach 
and intestines, and in and about the walls of all the blood ves¬ 
sels. In fact there is no definite specialized tissue of the whole 
body which has not more or less of this ganglionic tissue situ¬ 
ated somewhere in or about it. Thus it may be seen that the 
entire body is abundantly provided in every nook and corner 
with more or less of these gray, sympathetic nerve cells. 

These ganglionic masses act in exactly the same way as 
does the gray matter of the brain and spinal cord. That is, 
they are originating or receptive centers of more or less ability. 
From the central or spinal column ganglia first described, 
nerve fibers originate and pass outward, to enter, after ram¬ 
ifying into a mazy network of connecting fibers, into one of 
the primary subsidiary ganglia. From thence, fibers again 
pass out, ramify, re-collect and enter the secondary subsidiary 
ganglia in the organs. 

From this third set of ganglia, fibers finally pass to various 
tissues of the organs of the body, such as the involuntary mus¬ 
cular fibers of the heart, the muscular fibers which control the 
motion of the stomach and intestines, the plain muscular fibers 




224 MACFADBEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


in the skin whose contractions cause the appearance known 
as goose-flesh; the tiny muscles in the pupil of the eye (the 
activity of which changes the size of the pupil), or the tiny 
muscles in the walls of the blood vessels, the function of which 
is to increase or decrease the size of these vessels. They also 
pass to the cells of such organs as the liver, spleen, kidneys, 
salivary glands, sweat glands, etc., whose work it is to secrete 
certain materials used in the chemistry of the body. 

Now that we have looked for a few moments at the super¬ 
ficial anatomy of this great part of the nervous system, let 
us try to obtain a good general view of its purpose: In the 
first place, the sympathetic system controls and energizes all 
the muscular power of the body, which is involuntary in action. 
In other words, it is the source of the nerve power of all those 
muscular activities of the body which so rhythmically and un¬ 
tiringly manifest themselves without the aid of will power. It 
keeps the heart in action, and, with the assistance of the cranial 
nerve known as the pneumogastric, regulates and controls that 
action. It is the source of the muscular activity of the stomach, 
intestines and other similar organs which, at stated times and 
under certain forms of stimulus, carry out their duty. It is 
largely by the nerve force of the sympathetic system, that the 
closing and opening of the gates of the bladder and rectum are 
controlled. By its force the quantity of light allowed to en¬ 
ter the eye is regulated. Through its nerve energy, the ten¬ 
sion of the blood current in the whole body or in any local part 
is increased or diminished. By means of this system, the sali¬ 
vary, gastric and other glands pour forth their digestive fluids 
at the proper time. 

Besides these functions of muscular, nutritive and control¬ 
ling power previously mentioned, the sympathetic portion of 
the nervous system is a means to the reception and convey¬ 
ance to the brain of peculiar sensory impressions. It is by 
this means that sensations of temperature, such as heat and 
cold, are given to the mind. Through it, also, is conveyed 
that peculiar form of sensation which is known as muscular 
sense. For example, the impression of pressure, hardness, 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


225 


softness, etc., are obtained in this manner. Impressions of pain 
in the internal organs of the body are carried to the mind in 
this way. Through this channel, also, we probably obtain 
knowledge of more or less distant presence of bodies. 

We attempt in this chapter to give but a general under¬ 
standing of the structure of the nervous system and of its 
importance. The practical application of this knowledge for 
the purpose of invigorating the spinal cord and thereby increas¬ 
ing the energy of the body as a whole, will be taken up in 
another volume. 

In the treatment of the subject it will be noticed that we 
are directing our attention chiefly to the spinal cord, rather 
than to the upper brain. This is because we have every reason 
to believe that in the matter of vitality and physical energy, 
t he spinal cord and the medulla are of special importance, that, 
indeed, the real energy of the body, that which we call the es¬ 
sential force of life, is centered there. The cerebrum, on the 
other hand, is rather the organ of thought, the seat of intellect. 
In creatures of great intelligence the cerebrum is large and 
well developed, whereas in those of low intelligence it is small 
and undeveloped, and all irrespective 'of the strength and vital¬ 
ity of the animal. The life-force or vital strength does not 
seem to have much to do with the development of the cerebrum. 

In the brain of the gorilla, essentially the same in struc¬ 
ture as that of man, the cerebrum is very small and undevel¬ 
oped, but there is no denying the nerve-force resident in that 
powerful spine, or the tremendous physical energy of which 
this brute nether-man is capable. The same will apply to all 
the lower animals, down to the almost brainless but much verte- 
brated snake. On the other hand, we may sometimes find a 
top-heavy college professor, with bulging forehead and al¬ 
most incredible powers of memory in his exceptional cerebrum, 
who may possess scarcely more than enough physical energy 
to supply his top-most gray matter scantily. The cerebrum 
may be very active, and we know that it may be greatly stimu¬ 
lated by thoughts of various kinds, yet without adding to the 
energy of the body (save as this may arouse a far more active 








226 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


circulation of the blood through the body generally). In an¬ 
other volume we shall discuss the effect of the influence of 
thought over the welfare of the body. But for the practical 
purposes of Physcultopathy it will be seen that the vital energy, 
the life-force of the body, is rather centered in the spinal cord 
and medulla oblongata, perhaps also partly in the cerebellum or 
hind-brain, rather than in the fore-brain, and that in order to 
increase the strength and powers of resistance of the whole 
body, the most successful method is the employment of meas¬ 
ures that will invigorate the spinal cord. 

In searching for the source of all human energy we. readily 
find it is the air we breathe, in the food we eat. All energy is 
electrical; human energy is no exception; the same force moves 
alike the human machine as well as the universe. 

The body is really an electrical machine. The life and 
strength that it possesses are unquestionably electrical in na¬ 
ture. The impulse that comes to any part of the body, which 
is the cause of activity in that particular part, comes from the 
brain, through the nerves, and is transmitted by electricity or 
by some force very similar. This is readily proven by an 
experiment that has often been made. You can cut the nerve 
that supplies stimulus to any muscle of the body, and then 
apply electricity to the muscle, and the muscle will contract 
or shorten, in the same manner that it does when it receives 
its stimulus from the human brain. In fact, electricity 
has been applied to the muscular tissue of animals that have 
been dead for some time and the muscles have, to a certain 
extent, manifested action similar to that which they would 
while alive. 

Now, if the body is an electrical machine, how and from 
whence does it secure its electricity? We have already traced 
the source of human energy from the sun to the food that 
we eat, from which it passes into the blood through digestion 
and assimilation. Now, this blood, when in the right condi¬ 
tion, contains the nutriment needed to build up human energy. 
It contains those particular elements that replace all the worn- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


227 


out cells with new, live cells. It contains those elements that 
are needed to supply the body with the electrical energy re¬ 
quired. But, what is probably far more important, there is 
the electrical energy contained in the oxygen of respiration. 

Every minute nerve throughout the entire body is a part of 
the complicated electrical outfit that performs such an import¬ 
ant purpose in all human life. Even the smallest nerve assists 
in the work of absorbing electrical energy from the blood 
as it circulates throughout the entire body. Just as the ma¬ 
terials which form new blood are absorbed from the food as it 
passes through the alimentary canal, so electricity is absorbed 
from the blood by every nerve through the entire body, as the 
vital fluid circulates through every minute tissue. 

Nobody knows anything really definite about electricity. 
Nobody has ever seen it, except as manifested in the electric 
light or in lightning, or as it is exhibited in the force that 
it is capable of creating. It is the great Unseen Power. 
Though we know little about it we know something of the 
force of the energy that it can create, and in the mechanical 
world scientists have learned how to make electricity. We 
have learned how to store this mysterious power. We have 
“harnessed” it and are using it everywhere with vast benefit 
to mankind; but little, however, is known of what might be 
called “human electricity.” We often hear the term human 
magnetism or personal magnetism, and there must unquestion¬ 
ably be a close relationship between what we term human 
magnetism and human electricity. They are probably one 
and the same thing, because in nearly all instances one who 
possesses a large amount of human magnetism is strong and 
well built, and this indicates beyond all possible doubt the pos¬ 
session of a large amount of energy, which cannot be acquired 
unless the storehouse of human force—the nerve centers—is 
richly supplied with electricity or a kindred force. 

There may be some who say that it has yet to be proved 
that the energy that is transmitted to the muscles and various 
organs of the body is electrical in nature, or can in any sense be 
called electricity. We would ask, then: What is the energy that 




228 


MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


is thus transmitted? Nobody has ever analyzed electricity; no 
one has ever analyzed human energy. We may call it electricity 
or we may call it by any other name. Mere names are un¬ 
important. We believe it can be taken for granted, however, 
that the actual force that is generated within the human body 
and which furnishes the energy to perform muscular and men¬ 
tal labor and to maintain the vital processes of the body comes 
from the nerve centers of the body. Whether or not this force 
is electrical in nature or is in any way similar to electricity, is 
of no particular importance. We speak of it as “electrical” 
because it seems more like electricity than any other force we 
know of. 

If the nervous energy which impels the human machine is 
located in a definite part of the body, is it not quite plain that 
the stimulation of this particular part of the body, through 
various natural methods that are easily within our reach, 
would accelerate the activities of those particular parts and 
therefore very materially increase the amount of energy at 
the disposal of the body? Under those circumstances, we 
would have a stronger brain, a more powerful muscular sys¬ 
tem, and would have a very materially increased amount of 
energy that would be at the disposal of the vital organs them¬ 
selves. 

As stated a little while ago, we have now come to the 
very important question: Ho w can this source of human en¬ 
ergy be stimulated? Now there are various methods of stimu¬ 
lating the action of the spinal column, and each of the various 
means that can be used will be plainly illustrated and described 
in another place. However, we wish specially to dwell upon 
the advantages of stimulating this particular part of the body 
through the use of those muscles and cords that surround and 
bind together this very important part of the body. 

Now,what is the effect of muscular action or exercise on any 
part of the body? It is to a certain extent necessary to give 
some information on this subject that our readers may be able 
to follow our theories. A muscle brought into action by normal 
use or special exercise very greatly increases the supply of 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


229 


blood that is brought to that particular muscle. It not only 
accelerates the activity of the part used from this standpoint, 
but it very materially hastens the elimination of dead matter 
or waste, which is continually being carried to the various 
depurating organs of the body. Exercise, therefore, not only 
makes the part stronger, but cleanses it of all impurities by the 
increased circulation. 

Now the exercise of the muscles surrounding the spinal 
column increases the strength of the muscles themselves and 
also draws an additional blood supply to these parts. The 
spinal cord, therefore, has the advantage of the additional sup¬ 
ply of blood and of a better supply of blood. In addition to this 
the movement of the spinal column in various ways tends to 
stimulate the nerves located therein. Furthermore, it strength¬ 
ens the cords and muscular tissues which hold the spinal column 
so closely in its place and should there be any slight displace¬ 
ment of any of the cartilages which form this spinal column, the 
various movements back and forth and in all directions slowly 
but surely force the displaced cartilage into its proper position. 

« Osteopathy attaches very great importance to the necessity of a 
straight spine and to a very large extent can be commended. 

I have evolved a practical and complete system of exercises^ 
for the purpose of energizing the spine in the manner indi¬ 
cated, and I am offering it, with explanatory illustrations and 
careful descriptions, in another volume of this work. I will 
there take up the various practical phases of the subject more 
in detail. 

Now such exercises straighten the spine, give it its proper 
form, imbue one with a desire to walk erect, and thus all the 
organs of the body secure the advantage of being in a normal 
position. The shoulders are held erect, in line with the hips, 
as they should be, because when the muscles are properly 
developed, this is the most natural position for the body to 
assume. And, most of all, the action and exercise of these 
muscles surrounding the spinal column unquestionably bring 
about the very result that we are desirous of obtaining^ 
that is, the storing up of an increased amount of dec- 




230 MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


trical or nervous energy. If one has stored up a large 
amount of energy, it is, therefore, reasonable to believe that 
each organ, and in fact every part of the body, will be supplied 
more freely with this particular energy, that makes the human 
machine a more perfect device. We become more capable in 
our work regardless of its character. One is a better business 
man, a better lawyer, doctor, statesman, and more efficient 
generally, even if his time is taken up in manuafiwork, through 
the practice of these methods. The human machine is made 
stronger, and is capable of rendering more efficient service, 
whether it is necessary for you to call upon your brain or your 
muscles. 

I do not wish it understood that the mere occasional exer¬ 
cise of these muscles which force the spinal column to assume 
a more perfect form is all that is needed. You have to make 
use of every muscle of the body more or less all the time if 
you want to develop them. The development of the muscles 
of the entire body will to a certain extent increase the amount 
of nervous energy that will be finally absorbed. Therefore, 
if you want to be in possession of a human machine that is as 
nearly perfect as it can be made, first of all give especial attend 
tion to the development and constant use of the muscles about 
the spinal column. See that every muscle of the body receives 
a certain amount of active use when in action. It is not abso¬ 
lutely necessary to take special exercises every day. For 
instance, if your occupation should be of such a nature that 
on two or three mornings or evenings of the week you are 
unable to take your scheduled exercise, this will work no special 
harm, though, without question, after exercising you will feel 
more capable and you will be better able to perform your duties 
than you were on the day that you failed to take any exercise, 
that is, if taken in the morning. 

As further evidence that the development of the muscles 
around the spine tends to increase physical efficiency of the 
entire body, we direct the attention of the reader to men and 
women who have a large development of the muscles about the 
neck. You will rarely find a man with a broad, thick neck who 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


231 


is not vigorous, who does not possess a large amount of nervous 
and general physical energy. Similarly, the woman with the 
round, well developed neck, is usually a viril specimen of 
womanhood. It does not always indicate that these persons 
have given this particular part of the body a large amount of 
exercise. They may merely have inherited great vitality and 
the large neck has been one of the signs that indicate their 
general physical condition. 

Among professional wrestlers are to be found some of the 
strongest men of the world. They are powerful, hardy speci¬ 
mens of human efficiency from a physical standpoint. It might 
be said that nearly every athlete of this type is as strong as an 
ox and as hardy as an oak tree. In practically every case they 
have been made so by their favorite exercise. Wrestlers use 
nearly all the muscles of the body, but they use more especially 
the muscles of the neck and back. A wrestler, therefore, has 
all the advantage of an extraordinary amount of exercise f< 
these particular parts of the body that surround and prote 
the nerve centers represented by the spinal column. The 
great physical strength, in my opinion, is almost entirely di 
to the continual stimulation of the spinal column induced 1 
the practice of their favorite exercise. 

There are many other reasons why we should emphasize the 
value of a strong back. The muscles of the back enable one 
to hold the body erect and in its proper position. All the diges¬ 
tive organs are thus held in their normal positions, and conse¬ 
quently perform their functional processes more easily and 
more thoroughly. When the muscles of the back are devel¬ 
oped as they should be, it is practically impossible for one to 
be “round-shouldered.” Strong back-muscles practically 
force the shoulders into a proper position. Every bone is then 
held in place. 





Spinal curvature, for instance, is caused in nearly all cases 


The cords and muscles are 


not strong enough to hold the vertebrae in their proper posi¬ 
tion. They bend from side to side or, in some cases, outward, 
as is seen in the case of a hunchback. These defects are usu- 

Vol. 1—16 






232 MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ally possible solely because of weakness of the muscles of the 
back, and I will go further and state that every one of these 
deformities can be remedied (except in very rare instances, 
such as in the extraordinary change in the formation of the 
bank found in the hunchback) by the proper development of 
the muscles of the back. Of course, manipulation of the spine 
will be necessary in those cases where the defects are greatly 
exaggerated. In the ordinary case of spinal curvature, the 
exercises that I will illustrate in another volume, if followed 
intelligently and regularly, will in nearly every instance rem¬ 
edy the defect. 

There are many other serious physical defects that can also 
be remedied by these methods. If any one of the spinal verte¬ 
brae is displaced in the slightest degree, it very often presses 
upon the spinal cord or impinges either the motor or sensory 
nerve which emerges from the spinal cord at that point, and as 
a result, some part of the body is affected by this pressure. 
Paralysis, for instance, can be easily caused by pressure of this 
kind. Even where the complaint is not of such a serious nature, 
a comparatively slight amount of pressure affecting one or 
more nerves is liable to lessen their efficiency and thus cause 
partial paralysis, and so prevent the particular part to which 
the nerves are connected from working properly. Straighten¬ 
ing the spine will therefore, as you can readily realize, remedy 
serious defects of this nature. In fact, this is the theory upon 
which osteopaths largely proceed. They maintain that a prop¬ 
erly formed spine is absolutely necessary to the enjoyment of 
the highest degree of health, and that if any of your organs is 
not properly performing its functions, the cause can, in prac¬ 
tically every case, be located in the spine. When one or more 
of the vertebrae are misplaced or pressing upon the nerves 
within the spinal column, they are lessening the efficiency of 
the particular parts controlled by these nerves. 

Now in moving the body in any direction, there is a certain 
amount of movement of the spinal column. The more of an 
effort this movement requires, of course, the more vigorously it 
uses the muscles about the spine. Whenever you move in any 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


233 


direction, the spinal column bends in accordance with the pos¬ 
ture of the body. It is this bending back and forth and from 
side to side that gives this particular part of the body the neces¬ 
sary use required to keep it in a satisfactory degree of health. 
The spinal column is bound together with tendinous tissue. 
Over and surrounding this, are the muscles that help to hold it 
in place. The bending of the spine in various directions 
strengthens not only the ligaments and tendons but the muscles. 
/The proper use of any part of the body adds to its general 
(, vigor, and if any of the vertebras should be misplaced, the vigor- 
jr ous use of the muscles around the spinal column, the strength- 
il ening of the ligaments and muscles, finally forces the misplaced 
\Nvertebra into its proper position. Not only is it forced into 
proper position, but the increased strength of the muscles and 
the ligaments, of course, causes it to remain in that position. 
In this respect Physcultopathy has an incalculable advantage 
over Osteopathy , Chiropractic and all other systems of spinal 
correction. These other methods, while commendable in many 
cases, do not develop that strength wh ich makes the improve 
ment permanen t. 

You will find that a strong back and a properly formed 
spine will give you confidence. It will mean greater physical 
power. You will feel more of that exhilaration that comes 
with a high degree of health, for then you will really enjoy 
this superior condition. The result could not be otherwise, 
provided, of course, you give an ordinary amount of attention 
to your dietetic needs and to the general exercises essential for 
keeping the body in a vigorous condition throughout all parts. 

It would be impossible to emphasize too strongly the very 
great value of these methods for strengthening the internal 
organism. Internal strength is necessary to bodily vigor. The 
vital organs manufacture the blood, from which the elements 
that go to maintain and build up the entire human organism 
are secured. Now, as previously stated, the internal organs 
secure all the energy necessary for the performance of their 
functions from the nervous system. Each organ requires a 
certain amount of power to force it to continue its efforts. The 
















234 MAC FAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


entire functional system is self-operative. Its efforts are invol¬ 
untary, and if there is need for energy, there is a call made 
upon the nervous system for the power required. 

Now, in developing the muscles around the nerve centers, 
more healthful action and greater vigor of these parts is 
secured. More nervous energy is stored away, and then, as 
one might say, one has more life or vim, but one really has 
a larger supply of human electricity, that can be used as 
needed by the voluntary or involuntary muscles of the body. 
When you increase the supply of nervous energy, the internal 
organism is not only strengthened (that is, the tissues form¬ 
ing the walls thickened and increased in vigor) but it has a 
larger supply of nervous energy to draw upon when needed. 

Let us take the stomach, for example, one of the most im¬ 
portant of all the internal organs. The influence of the spinal 
invigoration, advocated here, upon the stomach is in the nature 
of a strong tonic that has no bad after-effects. For instance, 
the food that you eat is digested very largely by the muscular 
efforts of the walls of the stomach. As you can well realize 
the digestion of the food depends to a very large extent upon 
the strength of these muscles. The strength of the muscles 
is secured almost entirely from the nervous or electrical force 
that has been stored away for use by the functional system. 
In proof of this, if you should exercise so hard by running or 
walking such a great distance as to entirely exhaust yourself, 
your appetite for food would disappear entirely, or if you had 
a desire to eat anything, it would be an abnormal craving, for 
the stomach, in such circumstances, is not able to digest food. 
Food would simply have to lie there undigested until sufficient 
nervous force had accumulated to make the stomach properly 
perform its functional process. Of course, a moderate amount 
of exercise would increase your appetite, for then the system 
would be calling for more nourishment, and there would be 
enough nervous energy to digest whatever food you might eat, 
but when the exercise is continued beyond fatigue to exhaus¬ 
tion, as previously stated, then there should be no appetite, for 
food could not be digested under such circumstances. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


235 


The stomach, therefore, is strengthened by securing an 
additional supply of nervous or electrical energy. It actually 
thickens the muscular walls of the stomach itself and gives 
it more of the nervous energy essential for performing its office. 
The digestive j uices that flow into the stomach from the various 
glands also depend upon nervous energy for their activity. 
These glands require an electrical or nervous impulse, just as 
does the stomach, in order to carry out their work properly, 
and the strength and quantity of the digestive j uices, of course, 
very materially affects digestion and the general processes of 
caring for the food while in the stomach. 

Functional vigor is really a part of exhilarating health. 
Health means a harmonious working of all the functional 
processes. A high degree of functional vigor natu¬ 
rally insures a satisfactory supply of blood. It in¬ 
sures proper elimination. The poison that is always present 
even in the healthiest body is eliminated through the various 
depurating organs existing for that purpose. A high degree 
of functional vigor insures the proper performance of this 
important office. The body is then properly nourished, it is 
kept clean and purified, and is consequently strong in- all 
parts. This is absolutely necessary, as one can well realize in 
developing and maintaining exhilarating health. When one 
possesses health in this high degree, life is a constant delight. 
Work is a pleasure, no task is difficult. The hardest kind of 
labor, mental or physical, is easy to perform. Your strength 
is abundant; you are almost surfeited with power. At times, 
when enjoying health of this high degree you almost feel as 
though you were walking on air. There is a lightness, a resil¬ 
iency in your bounding steps that makes every movement a 
veritable joy. The possession of exhilarating health means 
living in the highest sense of the word. Ordinary health as a 
rule means a mere existence. The crawling worm, I might 
say, enjoys health, but in a blind way. He crawls through life 
groping about here and there. He does not live. But the 
wild horse or the wild buffalo of the plains revels in his abound¬ 
ing strength. He lives and breathes-in to the full the joys of 





236 


MA CFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


life. He is often surfeited with power. There is nothing in 
the life of a crawling worm that could be suitably compared to 
these virile specimens of animal power, and we woidd say to 
every reader of this volume, it lies with you whether you shall 
be a strong, virile animal, as far as your physical nature is 
concerned, or a miserable little crawling worm. You can be 
either one or the other. You have been invested with the 
faculties and the powers of the highest of all animals, and 
if you fail in your duty to yourselves, if you fail to take advan¬ 
tage of your own opportunities, then you have only yourselves 
to blame. 

If you do not possess health of the highest degree, then 
you must be suffering from some disease. If you do not possess 
the gift of abounding health that we have tried to describe, 
then there is something wrong. But no matter what your com¬ 
plaint may be, a large amount of nervous energy is absolutely 
essential in order to bring about a definite and permanent cure. 
We must also realize that the failure of the body to properly 
maintain a high degree of health, is nearly always due to func¬ 
tional difficulties brought about through improper diet, mus¬ 
cular inactivity, dissipation, and various other evils that are 
found everywhere in this enlightened (?) age, these evils them¬ 
selves largely the result of insufficient nerve-energy. 

Now in curing an ailment of any kind, the functional sys¬ 
tem, must, of course, be set right. It must be made to work 
harmoniously, and the vastly increased amount of nervous 
energy that can be secured and actually stored up by the body 
from the following up of the methods we are advocating will 
cause every organ of the body to work more smoothly and har¬ 
moniously, and disease of any nature will slowly but surely 
begin to disappear. Vital vigor is at the highest point when 
through constant efforts you have been able to develop the 
degree of muscular and vital strength necessary to actually 
force the body into a proper performance of its duties. Then 
you will probably find that your ailment, whatever its nature 
may be, has entirely disappeared. 

Disease, regardless of its nature, in nearly all cases indi- 






OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


237 


cates vital depletion. The vitality is lowered below the normal. 
The supply of nervous energy has been materially lessened, or 
else the nerve centers through some difficulty are not able to 
properly supply the required energy. All these results are 
caused in most cases by what we term vital depletion, and this 
lack of vitality or lack of nervous energy can b e satisfactorily 
remedied in practically every instance by adhering to the 
methods we advocate in these volumes in a general way, and 
e specially by giving atten tion to the methods of spinal invig- 
oration which we are offering and the practical application of 
which will be taken up in detail in another volume. 

It is usually quite a problem for the average manual 
laborer as to whether or not he can be benefited by taking 
additional exercise of any kind, and as those who are in the 
habit of using the muscles all day are frequently tired out at 
night and exercise of most any kind seems an irksome task, 
you can hardly blame manual workers for questioning the value 
of additional exercise. The ordinary occupations of manual 
workers require the use of only a part of the muscular system. 
These few muscles are, of course, in many instances, over¬ 
worked, while other muscles of the body are used but very 
little. Where this is continued j^ear after year, the result is 
that the body is pulled into various shapes which are far from 
those it should assume to maintain proper proportions. We 
would, therefore, say to the manual worker, learn something 
of your body. Learn its anatomical structure and its muscu¬ 
lar needs, and those muscles that are not being used daily 
in your work should be given a certain amount of vigorous use 
at frequent intervals. 

We would hardly advise a manual worker who goes home 
completely tired out, to take up additional exercises at that 
particular time when he cannot enjoy them, but at some other 
time when he is not so tired and he feels he has a certain amount 
of reserve energy, the active and thorough use of those muscles 
that are not brought into play during the day at his regular 
work will be of very great benefit. We have seen this demon¬ 
strated in a large number of cases. 












238 


MAC FAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


This is especially true as to the special exercises designed 
for the purposes outlined here. If the muscles all around the 
spinal column are strengthened and thoroughly developed in 
every way, they will not only increase one’s general vital vigor, 
but those in the habit of doing hard manual labor will find that 
their general strength will be very greatly enhanced, because 
they will then have more nervous energy to be used in their 
labors. Where the occupation requires a certain amount of 
lifting, of course, the muscles at the small of the back will not 
need to be given very much attention, but the muscles at the 
back of the neck and between the shoulders should be given 
regular exercise. Not only that, but all the various exercises 
that are inclined to lengthen the spinal column, and to push 
the vertebras together, will be found a very great stimulant to 
the muscular and vital organism. 

The brain worker requires nervous energy. He can 
hardly secure too much power of this kind. The more vim and 
vitality one possesses, the more life and spirit one can put into 
his brain work. Continuous brain work is said to be the hardest 
kind of labor, and the statement is undoubtedly true where the 
work is continued for protracted periods or where one works 
long hours each day. The efforts of the brain, however, depend 
very largely upon the physical efficiency, upon the possession 
of a high degree of nervous energy, and because of this, there is 
nothing that we know of that will so stimulate the vital energies 
of the brain worker as the methods that I am presenting. 
The exercises get right at the seat of the nervous powers. They 
almost directly affect the brain itself. Accelerating the circu¬ 
lation through the entire spinal column very materially 
enhances the healthfulness of this particular organ, and at 
the same time encourages the nerve centers in their efforts 
towards storing up a large amount of nervous or electrical 
energy. Most brain workers can take the exercises for this pur¬ 
pose that I will present in another place, and will note an 
almost immediate increase in their general mental energies. 
They will quiet the nervous system. They will be inclined to 
draw the surplus amount of blood from the brain, which often 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


239 


accumulates there in excessive quantities through a large 
amount of brain work, and they will be inclined in every 
instance to make one more calm and cool and resourceful from 
a mental standpoint. 

Mental power depends upon nervous vigor. A brainy 
man is always a man in the possession of a high degree of nerv¬ 
ous energy. In some instances he may be phlegmatic from a 
physical viewpoint; at the same time, in order to possess more 
than usual brain power he must have back of it a strong 
nervous foundation. He must be full of nervous 
energy. Though in a general way the truth of these 
statements is realized by brain workers everywhere, it has 
never been impressed upon them sufficiently to make them 
understand the necessity of trying to increase their supply of 
nervous energy. These methods advocated provide a powerful 
means of stimulating the mental energy, and anything that 
stimulates the mental energy, gives one an increase of general 
intelligence. He has more brain power to work with, and he 
has more nervous energy that can be converted into brain 
power. Those who may have occasion to doubt these state¬ 
ments will be literally amazed at the results of a trial of the 
methods herein advocated. I do not pretend for a moment 
that they will bring about such a change in one’s mental power 
inja day o r two as to be immediately noticed, but if they are 
given a few. weeks’ trial I do claim that the change will be 
startling in character, and frequently, if the exercises are taken 
but one, two, or three times, there will be a very noticeable 
change for the better. It is to be remembered, however, that 
usually, if the exercises are taken rather vigorously in the 
beginning, there is a slight soreness and stiffness, which will, to 
a limited degree interfere with brain energy. If the exercises 
are continued, however, after the soreness has sligthly disap¬ 
peared, the good results will then be noticed and you can 
secure the highest degree of physical vigor, and at the same 
time do a vast deal towards the acquirement of those mental 
energies essential to secure the wonderful power usually pos¬ 
sessed by a “brainy” man. 




240 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Because life is represented by circulation, movement, it 
can readily be seen that the more perfect the circulation, the 
more life one would possess. Death always occurs where there 
is stagnation. For instance, if the blood were stagnant in any 
part of the body, and was not allowed to circulate, that part 
would quickly die and would actually drop off of the body. 
Tie a string around any of your fingers so tightly that the 
blood cannot circulate therein. The finger will soon turn 
black and will finally drop off, except, perhaps, the bone. But 
an increased amount of nervous energy insures more thorough 
circulation. It insures an acceleration of the activity of all 
the functions that have to do with the circulation of the blood. 
Therefore you have more life. The minute atoms of death 
that linger in the body everywhere are carried away, thrown 
out. The new life-giving cells are brought into the various 
parts of the body where they are needed. The body is there¬ 
fore properly nourished. It is full of life and vitality and it 
is only then that you know what it is to live. It is then that 
you realize the meaning of exhilarating health. 















































f 



V 


































/ 


# 



































PLATE E 



Lower Illustration. Right Ki< 
ney and Surrounding Parts 

I. II, III and XII. Vertebra 

1. Cortex. 

2. Capsule. 

3. Pat. 

4. Suprarenal capsule. 

5. Ureter. 

6. Abdominal aorta. 

7. Renal arteries. 

8. Suprarenal arteries. 

9. Inferior vena cava. 

10. Renal veins. 

II. Suprarenal veins. 


Upper Illustration. Organs of 
Digestion. 

1. Diaphragm. 

2. Esophagus. 

3. Stomach. 

a. Entrance. 

b. The greater curvature. 

c. Pylorus. 

4. Duodenum. 

d. Common duct of the 

liver and pancreas. 

5. Small intestine. 

6. Large intestine. 


7. 

8 . 


9. 

10 . 

11 . 


e. Cecum. 

f. Vermiform appendix. 

g. Ascending colon. 

h. Transverse colon. 

i. Descending colon. 

k. Sigmoid flexure. 

l. Rectum. 

Spleen. 

Liver, parts cut away. 

m. Gall bladder. 

n. Common bile duct. 
Pancreas. 

Right Kidney. 

Left Kidney. 


















CHAPTER VIII. 

THE ORGANS OF DIGESTION. 


T HE human digestive system, upon close study, reveals 
itself as a marvelously efficient and competent 
mechanism, considering the work which it accom¬ 
plishes. Its wonders are much like those of other parts 'of 
the body; the more we study and observe them, the more re¬ 
markable do they seem. Consider the functions of the diges¬ 
tive organs in their relation to the rest of the body, how they 
labor faithfully day after day, month after month and year 
after year, often under a handicap of persistent, unstinted 
abuse, in order that the other organs and tissues of the body 
may be supplied with new material with which to recon¬ 
struct themselves, new fuel to keep alive and aflame the glow¬ 
ing spark of life. 

In the very lowest forms of life the entire animal is prac¬ 
tically nothing else than a stomach, after its kind, or, more 
accurately, a mass of jelly-like cells which have the power of 
assimilating organic matter that it may come in contact with, 
except when it is itself digested by some larger creature. But 
in man the stomach is a highly specialized organ, acting as 
a part of a complex and perfect whole, and performing the 
work of digestion for all of the other organs, just as they in 
turn perform their respective services for the stomach and the 
other parts of the body. It will be seen that the modern in¬ 
dustrial plan of “division of labor” was worked out by Mother 
Xature infinite ages ago, and much more perfectly than we 
have been able to learn it in the labors of human society. In 
speaking of the stomach, here, we should have referred to 
the entire digestive system, including not only the alimentary 
canal but also the supplementary organs, the salivary glands, 
the liver and the pancreas. 

Just think for a moment of the tissues of which the body 
is comprised, even of the hand alone, the remarkable strength 
of those small bones, the gripping, elastic muscles; their ten¬ 
dons and the ligaments and cartilages that reinforce and pro- 

243 


244 MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


tect the joints; and the wonderful structure of skin, which 
may be as firm and tough as leather or softer and finer than 
any silk or velvet. Think of the varied and complicated struc¬ 
ture of the many organs, the delicate cells of the lungs, the 
finely organized tissues that go into the unique mechanism of 
the ear, the transparent fluids of the organs of sight, with the 
incomprehensibly fine chemical processes which make possible 
the power of sight, and more remarkable still, the tissues of 
the brain and nerves themselves, more fearfully and wonder¬ 
fully made than all the rest. 

Then turning for a moment from this picture to the food 
before it is eaten, the wheat and the walnut, the pea and the 
potato, the asparagus and the apple, and the other varieties 
of food, just see what a change must be wrought before all 
these can be made over into the marvellous living human tissues 
that we have mentioned. And yet it is just this wonderful 
thing that our digestive organs accomplish, converting these 
various commonplace vegetable growths into the fine building 
material which is sent to every remote part of the body, and 
from which is made up the very blood, bone and sinew of our¬ 
selves. 

Not one of the least remarkable features of the human 
stomach is its phenomenal powers of endurance. This faculty 
of endurance and sustained vitality is likewise characteristic 
of the other organs and tissues of the human system and of 
the body as a whole, but it is the more obvious in the case of 
the stomach because of the exceptional abuse to which it is 
subjected. Much has been said, both in jest and in earnest, 
concerning the alleged invulnerability of the gizzard of the 
ostrich, and to the ears of many of us has come the fame of the 
goat and the alligator, both creatures with iron-clad stomachs. 
But though we are glad to give credit where credit is due, and 
are pleased to concede much in this respect to these far-off 
cousins of our universal animal kinship, yet we must remember 
that their dissipations are, after all, more or less limited in 
variety, and, at least from a chemical standpoint, probably far 
less serious than our own. It is extremely doubtful if even 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


245 


the brilliantly plumed biped which we have mentioned would 
have much chance in a competition with those other bipeds 
who sometimes wear the stolen plumes of the former. 

But if men and women can day after day abuse 
their assimilative organs by eating indigestible dishes, 
and still remain alive, or half-alive, then how might 
they not improve and perfect their health and in¬ 
crease their vitality by following out the intentions of 
Nature in regard to the use of wholesome and strengthening 
foods. A very large part of the disease and weakness which 
we find almost universally throughout the world is the result 
of ignorance in regard to the needs of the stomach and the 
dietetic dissipations and errors which arise from this ignorance. 
The student of Physcultopathy, who naturally wishes to avoid 
any wastes of vitality, and to raise the standard of his health 
and physical condition to the very highest possible, should 
have a good general knowledge of his digestive organs, 
their location, their action and physiological requirements. By 
knowing these things, he will understand that there is some¬ 
thing out of order almost before there is anything wrong, and 
he will know just what to do to set it right. 

We find that the organs involved in the work of digestion 
are many and elaborate. The digestive machinery is made up 
of the alimentary canal and the organs directly connected 
with it. From a physiologist’s standpoint, the canal consists of 
the mouth, pharynx, oesophagus, stomach and intestines. The 
supplementary organs are the salivary glands, liver and the 
pancreas. 

A detailed study of the anatomy of the mouth is hardly 
necessary here. We may say briefly that it is divided into 
three parts, the vestibule, which is the part in front of the teeth, 
enclosed by lips and cheeks, the mouth proper, and the back 
of the mouth. The study of the teeth may be left to spe¬ 
cialists, with the advice that they be frequently examined to 
see that they are not in bad condition. They should be kept 
scrupulously clean, and we should not forget that they were 
intended for a purpose and should be used for that purpose, 




MA CFA DDE N’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


246 


not only for their own welfare but for our 
general bodily welfare. If the teeth are 
used vigorously, and if the body is prop¬ 
erly supplied with the food elements re¬ 
quired to build bones and teeth, in short, 
if one’s circulation is active, his blood pure 
and his condition sound in every way, his 
teeth will keep in good condition, except 
where decay has commenced. 

The mouth proper contains the tongue, 
forming the floor of the cavity, and con¬ 
sisting chiefly of striated muscle-fibers. 
It is one of the most remarkable of our 
muscular organs, and will be considered 
further in the discussion of the sense of taste, among the 
other organs of special sense. The tongue is also the 
chief*and indispensable organ of speech. The palate forms 
the roof of the mouth, the anterior, bony part being 
known as the hard palate, and the posterior, movable part 
the soft palate. At the posterior edge of the soft palate is a 
conspicuous elongation, hanging down like an inverted cone, 
called the uvula, which is of little or no importance. The 
act of swallowing, by raising the soft palate, completely closes 
up the uppermost part of the pharynx and the nasal cavity. 

From the standpoint of the function of digestion, the three 



Section of a Molar Tooth 
and Jawbone. 

1. Dentine. 

2. Enamel. 

3. Cavity with canals. 

4. Cement. 

5. Ingoing nerves and 
blood-vessels. 

6. Jawbone. 

7. Gum. 



Formation of the Teeth of Adults. 

1, 2. Incisors. 

3. Canine. 

4, 5. Premolars. 

6, 7. Molars. 

a. Crown of tooth. 

b. Neck of tooth. 

c. Root of tooth. 















OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


247 



salivary glands on each side of the mouth are the most im¬ 
portant features of this cavity, acting in connection with the 
work of the teeth in grinding and mashing the food. These 
glands secrete the saliva, which pours into the mouth freely 
when food is introduced, its purpose being to lubricate the 
mouth, to moisten the food, but especially to bring into solu¬ 
tion the starchy ingredients of the food and to convert them 
into a form of sugar, known as maltose. The largest salivary 
gland on each side is the parotid, a flat, triangular gland placed 
just in front and below the ear, its excretory duct emptying 


Cross Section Throng'll the Nasal Cavity. 

1. Ethmoidal sinuses. 

2. Septum. 

3. Upper nasal canals. 

4. Middle nasal canals. 

5. Lower nasal canals. 

6. Upper turbinated bones. 

7. Lower turbinated bones. 

8. Middle turbinated bones. 

9. Entrance to the antrum. 

10. Sensory epithelium. 



















248 


MA CFA DDEN J S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


into the mouth just opposite the last molar tooth. The sub¬ 
maxillary gland is placed just within the angle of the lower 
jaw and the sublingual glands lie upon the forward floor 
of the mouth, just under the tongue, as the derivation of their 
name would signify. Saliva is a colorless, odorless, tasteless 
fluid, and it is the ingredient known as ptyalin which acts 
upon the starches. 

The upper part of the pharynx is exclusively a part of the 
system of respiration, but the middle and lower parts act also 
as a passageway for food. After its treatment with the saliva, 
the food passes through the back of the mouth, through the 
pharynx, and thence into the oesophagus, or gullet, a cylin¬ 
drical tube some nine inches long, through which the food is 
forced by involuntary, peristaltic muscular action, into the 
stomach. 

There are two openings to the stomach, the first known 
as the cardiac opening, close to the heart; the other, the pyloric 
opening, which is at the farther end of the stomach. The 
illustrations will give the reader an excellent idea, not only of 
the location of these openings, but of the organ in general. The 

food enters the 
stomach at the 
cardiac, and 
leaves by the 
pyloric opening. 

There are 
four coats to the 
stomach, the 
outer one is 
called the peri¬ 
toneum, a thin, 
smooth mem¬ 
brane which also 
lines the abdo¬ 
men; the second 
coat consists of 
three layers of 



The Parotid Gland. 

Parotid gland. 

Accessory parotid gland. 

Duct leading from the gland. 

Opening of the duct on the inner side of cheek-muscle. 
Lobules of the gland. 

Masseter muscle. 

Risorius muscle. 

Sterno-mastoid muscle. 

Trapezius muscle. 

, Facial nerve. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


249 


involuntary muscles; the third coat, known as the submucous, 
binds the fourth coat, called the mucous, to the muscular coat. 

Now, when the stomach is empty, the mucous coat lies in 
folds. When the organ is dilated with food or water, the 
coat gradually unfolds. In it are myriads of tiny glands, be¬ 
tween each of which is a net-work of microscopic blood ves¬ 
sels. When the stomach is empty, the mucous coat is nearly 
colorless, but when food enters it blood rushes to all the little 
vessels and the coat takes on a rosy appearance. This added 
blood sets the glands—gastric glands they are called—in ac¬ 
tion. They open and tiny drops of gastric fluid trickle out, 
mix with the food and aid in the process of digestion. It 
should be said here that when food enters the stomach, both 
the cardiac and pyloric openings close automatically. 

At this stage of the work, the muscular coat of the 
stomach begins to contract and relax, and by repetition of 
the movement sets up a sort of churning that thoroughly mixes 
the gastric juice with the food. Gastric juice contains two 
ferments, pepsin and rennin. Pepsin, in the presence of an 
acid (there is one-fifth per cent, free hydrochloric acid in the 
gastric juice) dissolves all of the proteid elements in the food. 
All foods that contain 
nitrogen are proteids. 

Nitrogenous foods, in 
some forms, are abso¬ 
lutely essential to life. 

Meats, nuts, eggs, peas 
and beans are familiar 
samples of nitrogenous 
foods. 

The gastric juice has 
no action on starchy 
foods; in the case of 
fats it dissolves the al¬ 
bumen in the walls of 
fat and sets the fat it¬ 
self free in tiny parti- 

Vol. 1—17 



A Section of the Wall of the Stomach. 

(Greatly magnified.) 

1. Long muscle fibers showing cells. 

2. Vascular coat. 

3. Gastric glands. 

5. Blood supply to the glands. 

6. Openings of glands. 











250 


MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


cles. When com¬ 
pletely churned 
and mixed with 
gastric juice the 
food contents of 
the stomach soon 
becomes a thick 
liquid of grayish 
color, and is called 
chyme. The action 
of rennin, the 
other ferment in 
gastric juice, is 
to cause milk to 
curdle—a process 
that must take 
place before the 
milk is ready for 
assimilation into the system. Within an hour after the food 
has entered the stomach, some of it is in a condition to be 
received into the blood. This is done by a very curious process. 
When in the body liquids of different densities have the power 
of exchanging particles through the thin walls or membranes 
of vessels. Thus from the various compounds ingested, the 
blood, vessels of the stomach are able to take up or absorb such 
particles as the different salts and sugars. 

In return for this the blood vessels expand and allow 
more blood to flow to the muscles of the stomach, which re¬ 
news the churning process with greater activity, thus increas¬ 
ing the efficiency of the gastric processes of digestion. In 
about an hour or so after the food has entered the stomach, 
the pylorus opens and by the contraction of its ring-like mus¬ 
cles, forces waste matter and such portions of the food as are 
still undigested into the small intestine, so-called because it is 
only an inch in diameter. In this intestine, the process of diges¬ 
tion is continued in a very involved and remarkable manner. 

The organs of the digestive tract, in common with nearly 



Photograph Showing Outer Layers of the Stomach. 

1. CEsophagus. 

2. Cardiac orifice. 

3. Anterior surface. 

4. Cardiac portion. 

5. Pylorus. 

6. Beginning of the duodenum. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


251 


all portions of our anatomy, have been given such names as 
would incline one to the opinion that they were adopted to 
render their study as difficult—instead of as simple—as possible. 
This fact makes the study harder to grasp than is necessary, 
and thus prevents an easy understanding of bodily functions 
with which all should be familiar. However, we are forced to 
describe the various organs under those titles by which they 
are known to science, as, otherwise, the reader would be un¬ 
able to recognize the allusions to them which he may encounter 
in further study or discussion of the subject. 

The small intestines are twenty-five feet in length and for 
descriptive purposes may be divided into three parts, the duo¬ 
denum, the jejunum and ileum. 

The duodenuin is about nine inches long and starts from 
the pyloric end 
of the stomach, 
running obliquely 
backward and up¬ 
ward to the under 
surface of the liv¬ 
er. From thence 
it proceeds down¬ 
ward on the ante¬ 
rior surface of the 
right kidney, turn¬ 
ing again horizon¬ 
tally to the left 
and across the 
lower portion of 
the spinal column. 

The jejunum is 
the continuation 
of the duodenum. 

. . , Section of the Stomach and Duodenum. 

It IS pinkish m hue 1. Cardiac orifice. 

,, 2. Pylorus. 

and its walls are 3. Rugae. . _ _ 

4. Lesser omentum, in upper part of figure. 

thicker than the *■ %lT £„ a % ner ' tum ' m ,ower pan ° f flKUre ' 

e 11 T ™ , 6 . Common bile duct from liver, 

following portion. 7 , Duct from the pancreas. 





252 


MA CFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


The ileum , or final portion of the small intestine, is smaller 
in diameter, finer in texture and paler in color than the fore¬ 
going. It ends in the cecum, the first part of the large intes¬ 
tine, by means of the ileo-cecal valve. This valve is situated 
at this place for the purpose of preventing the backward flow 
of material from the large into the small intestine. 

As in the stomach, the intestines, large and small, are com¬ 
posed of four coats, the outer or peritoneal, the muscular, the 
sub-mucous, and the mucous or inner lining. 

This inner or mucous lining is of very much larger ex¬ 
tent than the others and hence is thrown into folds, or valves, 
giving a very much increased surface. Immediately below 
this mucous lining we find an immense number of small glands 
called villi . These villi are composed of a network of vascular 
tissue surrounding a central space called the lacteal. 

The large intestine is five feet in length, and is also divided 
into three parts, the cecum, colon and rectum. The cecum, 
or first portion of the large intestine, is so called because it is 


a blind pouch. It is situated in the right pelvic region, begin- 



Cross Section of a Part of the Small Intestine. 


(Detailed reproduetion.) 

1. Peritoneum. 

2. External circular muscle-layer. 

3. External longitudinal muscle-layer. 

4-5. Inner muscle-layer. 

6. Submucous layer. 

7. Villi covered with epithelial cells. 

8. Blood-vessels branching in the villi. 

9-10. Lymphatic capillaries. 

11. Nerves. 

12. Crypts of Lieberkuehn. 

13. A follicle. 

14. Lymphatic vessel \ 










OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


253 


ning at the right haunch bone. From the lower and inner side 
of this organ extends a small wormlike process about two or 
three inches in length, called the vermiform appendix. 

Very little is known of the real purpose of the vermiform 
appendix, if it has any. The opinion has been expressed that 
it is something in the nature of an oil sac, containing a lubri¬ 
cant for the colon, but this is doubtful, especially since such 
lubricants are supplied from other sources. Medical opinion 
declares that the appendix is not only unnecessary but a 
source of danger. In case of inflammation in this region, the 
usual practice is to operate and remove the appendix. As to 
the wisdom or folly of this we shall speak later, in another 
volume, when we consider the detailed natural treatment of 
appendicitis. We may say here briefly, however, that appen¬ 
dicitis is only the result of aggravated constipation in nearly 
every case, and that the advantage of cutting out any part of 
the body machine, no matter how insignificant or apparently 
useless, is questionable. 

Continuous with the cecum, we have the colon. This is 
divided into three portions, the ascending portion proceeding 
upward from the cecum to the under surface of the liver. 

Here, bending to the left, it 
becomes the transverse colon, 
crossing under the liver and 
stomach to the region of the 
spleen. Bending downward 
again it becomes the descend¬ 
ing colon, until it reaches the 
left haunch bone. Here, be¬ 
coming “S” shaped, it is called 
the sigmoid flexure. This ends 
in the rectum or the final res¬ 
ervoir, the mouth of which is 
called the anus, and which is 
guarded by a sphincter, or sur¬ 
rounding muscle. This muscle 
is continuously contracted, 



cecum Opened to Show the Junction 
of Small Intestine With the Large 
Intestine. 

1. Small Intestine. 

2. Cecum. 

3. Vermiform appendix. 

4. Large intestine. 

5 . Ileo-cecal valve. 





254 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


opening only at certain periods for the discharge of the stored 
up excrementitious material. 

The process of digestion which is accomplished in the small 
intestine is by far the greatest part of the whole process and 
is very complex in nature. The chyme, which comes from the 
stomach through the pyloric valve, consists of macerated food, 
a small portion of the albuminous material contained in the 
food having been partly digested in the stomach. 

All the starches, sugars, fats and undigested albuminous 
material now come in contact with three digestive fluids. 
These are the pancreatic juice, bile and the intestinal juices. 

The bile has a number of functions. First, it is antiseptic; 
in other words, it keeps the food in this warm, moist intestine 
sweet while being digested; second, it causes the peristaltic or 
vermiform motion of the intestine; third, it emulsifies the fats; 
and, fourth, a portion of the bile is reabsorbed to aid in the 
chemical changes produced in the liver tissue. 

The pancreatic juice has three ferments. The first, known 
as trypsin, acts upon albumens, changing them into soluble al¬ 
bumens, or peptones, fit for absorption. The second is amy- 
lopsin, which by its action converts starches into sugars. The 



Pancreas. 

1. Tail of the pancreas. 

2. Head of the pancreas. 

3. Duct (canal of Wirsung). 

4. A second duct, not commonly found. 

5. Opening of duct. 

6 . Duct from the gall sac. 







OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


255 


third is steapsin, which changes the fats into fatty acids, and 
glycerin. 

The intestinal juices have their action almost wholly upon 
the albumenoid material. This material, after reaching the 
small intestine in a digested form, is now ready for absorption. 
This process is carried on by the villi, as previously explained. 
The emulsified and changed fats are absorbed by means of the 
lacteals, the central vessels of each of the villi. From these 
they are gathered together and brought into the thoracic duct, 
which empties its contents into the large veins at the root of 
the left side of the neck. Thence this fatty material is carried 
to the lungs for immediate oxydization, producing internal 
or animal heat. The detritus, or the material which fails of 
digestion, passes on through the rest of the small intestine, be¬ 
coming more solidified as it passes through the large intestine, 
finally being deposited in the rectum, which, at stated periods, 
evacuates itself. 

The liver is the largest gland in the body. It is so-called 
because it secretes, that is, produces a certain fluid necessary 
for the vital processes of the body. In normal human beings, 
it weighs about four and a half pounds. It is brown in color, 
sometimes stained yellow by the bile. It is divided roughly 
into four lobes or parts—two large and two small. It is situ¬ 
ated on the right side, immediately under the diaphragm or 
muscular partition between the chest and the abdominal cavity, 
being protected by the free border of the lower ribs at the 
right side and back. It has a double blood supply, rather dif¬ 
ferent in character from that of any other organ of the body. 
This is because of the fact that all the blood from the intes¬ 
tines, into which has been absorbed the food made soluble by 
digestion, needs to be carried to the liver to have these ab¬ 
sorbed foods changed. Hence, there is a blood supply known 
by the name of portal, and another blood supply similar to 
that of other organs, for the nourishment of the liver itself 
brought by the hepatic artery. 

The work done by this organ is of various characters: 
First, it produces or secretes what we know as the bile, which 




256 MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


we referred to briefly a few moments ago. This is a yellowish, 
opaque, viscid liquid produced in the cells of the liver and 
stored up pending the necessity for its use in what is known as 
the gall-bladder. This latter is a pouch-like reservoir situated 
at the anterior and under surface of the liver. The bile is 
poured from this into the small intestine during the process of 
digestion. The uses of this bile were detailed in our discussion 
of the digestive work carried on in the small intestines. 

The second class of work done by the liver is what is known 
as the change of the absorbed foods into such material as may 
be assimilated or used by the tissues themselves in all parts of 
the body. The absorbed foods which are changed by the liver 
are, first, absorbed sugars, technically known as dextrose. 
When this material reaches the liver, having been brought from 
the intestines, that portion of it which is not needed immediate¬ 
ly by the tissues, is changed back into a form of animal starch 
known as glycogen, and stored up in the cells of the liver for 
future use. Second, the albumins which have been brought 
from the intestines after being digested, are chemically chang¬ 
ed in the liver to such proteid material as the tissues are cap¬ 
able of assimilating. 

The third class of work done by the liver is connected with 
the excretion of broken down tissue of the body or worn-out- 
bodily tissue. The blood from all parts of the body carries to 
the liver, worn out or broken-down tissues. These particles, 
which are useless, are changed in this organ to a material call¬ 
ed urea, which can naturally be filtered out of the blood by the 
kidneys. This urea, manufactured in the liver in normal condi¬ 
tions, is sent by the blood current to the kidneys, there to be ex¬ 
creted. In abnormal conditions many diseases, such as rheuma¬ 
tism, gout, neuralgia, disturbances of circulation, heart trouble, 
etc., are caused by a failure of tbe liver to complete this work 
properly, so that instead of producing urea from the broken- 
down materials of the system, uric acid and its salts are pro¬ 
duced, and these not being filtered out by the kidneys, are 
backed up into the body and deposited in many tissues, poi- 


















V 

: • . • t 


'.V 


M ' . V 

- . . >... * 

, ■ 

‘ 

V • 

. • ■ f 

y<i:t 







































i 



























































« 







PLATE F 


Branchings of 


Bronchi an d the Blood Vessels of the Lungs. 


Vital Organs of 
a One-Year-Old 
Child. 

4. Trachea. 

5. Thymus gland; 
developed fully 
in a two - year- 
old child, after 
that it dimin¬ 
ishes in size. 

6. Bronchi. 

7-8-9. Respectively, 
upper, middle 
and lower lohes 
of the right lung. 


-11. Respectively 
the upper an 
lower lobes 
the left lung. 
12. Right ventricle. 


13. Left ventricle. 

) 14. Right auricle. 

/ 15. Left auricle. 

I 16. Superior vena cava. 


17. Inferior vena 
cava. 

18. Pulmonary ar¬ 
tery. 

19. Pulmonary veins. 

20. Aorta. 

21. Branches of the 
superior vena 
cava. 

22. Diaphragm. 

23. Thoracic duct 
(lymphatic). 

24. Lymphatic ves¬ 
sels. 


The tissues outside the cavity of the ribs are not shown. 
(The front wall of the chest has been removed.) 


1. Larynx. 

2. Trachea. 

3. Bronchi, dividing into 
bronchial tubes. 

4. Superior vena cava. 

5. Inferior vena cava. 

6. Right auricle. 

7. Right ventricle. 

8. Pulmonary arteries of the 
left lung. 


9. Pulmonary veins of + he 
left lung. 

10. Left auricle. 

11. Left ventricle. 

3 2. Aorta. 

13. Right subclavian artery. 

14. Right carotid artery. 

15. Left carotid artery. 

16. Left subclavian artery. 


17. Liver. 

18. Stomach. 

19. Abdominal wall. 

20. Diaphragm. 

21-27. True ribs. 

28-29. Two false ribs. 

30. Cartilage of the true ribs. . 

31. Cartilage of the false ribs. 

32. Part of pleura. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


259 


soning the nervous system, causing muscular and joints pains, 
and many other ills. 

The liver being the largest gland in the great chemical 
laboratory of the human body, necessarily needs great care and 
attention to keep it in a normal state and in good working con¬ 
dition. 

From the foregoing description of its labors, one may 
easily see that the character of the diet and the amount of the 
food digested are of prime importance in this matter. Over¬ 
loading—overworking of the liver, sooner or later, causes 
break-downs, and nine-tenths of humanity today suffer multif- 
erous ills from this cause. 

The pancreatic juice referred to in the process of intestinal 
digestion is produced, or as we usually say, is secreted by a 
gland of considerable size known as the pancreas . It is elon¬ 
gated and triangular in form, and occupies a horizontal position 
along the posterior abdominal wall behind the stomach and the 
transverse colon. The narrow end at the left touches the 
spleen, while the right end, which is thicker, fills out the con¬ 
cave space formed by the duodenum. The excretory duct of 
the pancreas empties into the duodenum at about the same 
place as does the bile duct. 

In point of location the spleen is so closely associated with 
the digestive organs that it may as well be described here as 
elsewhere, although it is not essentially a part of the digestive 
system. We may say that the exact functions of the spleen are 
not thoroughly understood, and we therefore have no special 
place in any other chapter in which to take it up. It is sup¬ 
posed to affect or elaborate certain elements of the blood, but 
we have not been able to learn as much of the work of this or¬ 
gan as we have of practically all of the others. It is on the 
left side, fairly well back, and situated between the stomach 
and the diaphragm. After unusually violent exercises the 
spleen may sometimes be overfilled with blood, causing pains 
or stitches in the side, and in some diseases, such as malaria and 
typhoid, it may enlarge sufficiently to be felt beneath the ribs 
of the left side. 




260 MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


From the study of the digestive system it will be seen that 
the problem of the selection of appropriate food is of impor¬ 
tance in more respects than one. Not only is it essential that 
we have foods which are pure and rich in the elements required 
for the rebuilding and repair of the tissues of the body, obvious¬ 
ly the most vital consideration, but the consumption of indigest¬ 
ible foods and of those containing only a small proportion of 
nutriment involve such a strain upon the digestive organs as to 
use up an excess of vital energy in the work of digestion, if not 
indeed to bring about a deranged or diseased condition of them. 
And, as must be apparent at once, any disorder of the digestive 
system must inevitably affect the condition of the body as a 
whole, since the state of the blood and of every part depends 
upon the perfect functioning of these organs. 

In later chapters we shall take up in detail the discussion 
of food values and the requirements of the body in this direc¬ 
tion. It is a tremendously big as well as a vitally important 
subject, and should have the careful study of every one in¬ 
terested in his own physical welfare. 




CHAPTER IX. 

THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM. 


A S we contemplate the many wonders of the human 
body, the different organs, tissues and systems, we 
cannot fail to be impressed with the importance and 
remarkable mechanism of each one of them. Each one, as 
we study it closely, is seen to be an absolutely indispensable 
part of the complex, perfect and almost awe-inspiring whole. 
Surely, in all of the intricate and ingenious devices of man, 
wizard that he is, there is not and cannot be anything that is 
even a tiniest fraction of one per cent, as wonderful as man 
himself. 

In the study of the structure and workings of the heart 
and vascular system we are impelled almost to cry out our 
admiration of such a delicate, elaborate, and at the same time 
faultless system of incessant transportation, and to conclude 
that the heart is the most important of all the organs of the 
body. But it would be a mistake, in truth, to try to discrimi¬ 
nate between various parts or systems of the body, all of which 
are absolutely essential to life. As we have seen, the center of 
life and of human power is undoubtedly the nervous system, 
and yet in order to maintain life in the tissues it is essential 
that they be continually supplied with the new materials nec¬ 
essary to keep them in constant repair, it being the province 
of the blood to carry to every minutest part of the body this 
new building material, which we call nutrition, and also the 
vitalizing oxygen, at the same time carrying away the pois¬ 
onous waste products, which, if not removed, would instantly 
clog the action of the vital machinery, with disastrous results. 
And since it is the heart that keeps the blood in constant 
movement, or as we say, circulation through every part of 
the body, men have commonly come to regard this organ as 
the most vital of them all. We know that if the circulation 
is interrupted for an instant because of a failure of the heart 
to perform its function, either through violent injury or other 
cause, then the life of the individual terminates abruptly. The 

261 


262 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


hunter who wishes to kill seeks, above all things, to pierce the 
heart of his prey with an insignificant lead missile, because 
he knows that this means the immediate and absolute cessa¬ 
tion of life. Truly, is it not enough to cause one to marvel, 
when he ponders upon the uninterrupted action of the tire¬ 
less central organ and the continuous, incessant movement of 
the vital fluid through every infinitesimal particle of his own 
being, when he contemplates the fact that through all the far 
reaches of the years that he has lived, the vigorous, vital activ¬ 
ity of the circulatory system has not for one moment faltered 
or stood still? 

The human heart is really a powerful pump, indeed, a 
double pump, as we shall see from its structure, and the most 
remarkable example of muscular vigor in the entire body. It 
consists of involuntary muscles, as we have already learned; 
in other words, muscles which are not subject to the volition 
of the individual. It appears to be tireless, or practically so; 
for certainly in any condition of the most extreme muscular 
fatigue the heart is the very last part of the body to become 
exhausted. It is possible for the heart to become badly 
fatigued, to such an extent that its efforts are either some¬ 
what or very weak, and in such a case its fatigue is seen by 
the face and other parts of the body becoming extremely pale, 

showing that this great 
life-sustaining organ is 
not able to propel the 
blood through its chan¬ 
nels with normal rapidity. 
Such a condition of fa¬ 
tigue of the heart is most 
unusual except as the re¬ 
sult of the greatest bodily 
exertion, prolonged ex¬ 
citement producing utter 
exhaustion of the entire 
body generally. Such 





Transection of the Heart. 

1. Left ventricle. 

2. Right ventricle. 

3. Partition. 

4. External wall of right ventricle. 

5. External wall of left ventricle. 

6 . 7. Coronary arteries and fat in anterior 
and posterior furrows. 




























PLATE G 





External Muscles of the 
Front of the Heart. 

1. Muscular wall of the right 
ventricle. 

2. Muscular wall of the left 
ventricle. 

3. Muscular wall of the right 
auricle. 

4. Muscular wall of the left 
auricle. 

5. Left auricle. 

6. Pulmonary vein. 

7. Superior vena cava. 

8. Inferior vena cava. 

9. Pulmonary artery showing 
the semilunar valves 
(white). 


Distribution of the Blood Vessels. 

(Detailed reproduction.) 
(Highly magnified.) 

1. Blood vessels. 

2. Meshwork of capillaries. 

3. Sections of lobules. 


A 


Vertical Section 
of the Heart. 

1. Left ventricle laid open, showing the 
internal muscle bundles. 

2. Bicuspid valve. 

3. Left auricle opened. 

4. Edge of left auricle. 

5. Opening of the four pulmonary veins. 


Single Lobule With Its Network 
of Capillaries. 

(Very highly magnified.) 

1. Partitions between the lobules. 

2. Looped capillaries. 

3. Capillaries in which the blood is 
purified by oxygen. 



OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


265 


sudden and extreme fatigue of the heart as to suspend its action 
is a possibility, as for instance when one who is none too 
strong is compelled to exert himself violently in very cold 
water. But all such cases are out of the ordinary, and for 
purposes of a normal, everyday existence, the heart appears 
to be practically tireless. 

The heart has something of the shape of a large pear, 
situated in the central forepart of the chest, with the lower 
end, which might be termed the apex of the somewhat cone- 
shaped organ, turned toward the left side. The work of pump¬ 
ing the blood and thus propelling it through the blood ves¬ 
sels is accomplished by the muscular contractions of its walls, 
each vigorous contraction being succeeded by a very brief 
instant of relaxation. It is this mere instant of relaxation of 
the muscular tissues of the heart, between each “beat” or con¬ 
traction, which enables the organ to recuperate completely 
and to continue its work without any apparent rest. The 
act of contraction causes the apex of the heart to strike against 
the front chest walls, not altogether unlike the action of the 
“kick” or recoil of a gun, and it is this striking that? we can 
feel and hear, and which we speak of as the “beating of the 
heart,” in common parlance. 

The heart is generally about the size of the clenched fist 
of its possessor, or perhaps a little larger. It is supported in 
a bag consisting of a double layer of membrane, which 
enables it to contract and relax without friction. This sac 
is known as the pericardium. But we shall now consider the 
organ itself in greater detail. 

The heart is a hollow, muscular organ, the interior of 
which is divided by a partition in such a manner as to form 
two chief chambers or cavities, one to the right and one to 
the left. Each of these chambers is again subdivided into an 
upper and a lower portion, called respectively the auricle and 
ventricle, which freely communicate one with the other. The 
aperture or point of such communication, however, is guarded 
by a sort of valve which allows the blood to pass freely from the 
auricle into the ventricle but not in the opposite direction. 




266 MACFABBEN’S ENCYCLOPEBIA 


Thus there are four cavities altogether in the heart—two auri¬ 
cles and two ventricles; the auricle and ventricle of one side 
being quite separate from those of the other. The right hand 
auricle communicates with the veins of the general system and 
also with the right ventricle while the latter leads into the pul¬ 
monary artery, the orifice of which is guarded by a valve. The 
left auricle, on the other hand, communicates with the pulmon¬ 
ary veins and with the left ventricle, the latter leading directly 
into the aorta, the large artery which conveys blood to the gen¬ 
eral system and whose orifice, like that of the pulmonary artery 
is guarded by valves. 

A little consideration of this arrangement of the heart’s 
valves will show that the blood can pass only in one direction, 
which is as follows: From the right auricle, it flows into the 
right ventricle and thence into the pulmonary artery by which 
it is conveyed to the capillaries or minute blood vessels of the 
lungs. It may be interesting to note that the pulmonary ar¬ 
tery is the only one in the body which carries impure or so- 
called venous blood. From the lungs the blood, now purified 
and altered in color, is gathered by the pulmonary veins and 
taken to the left auricle, from which it passes into the 
left ventricle and thence into the aorta, by which it is dis¬ 
tributed to the capillaries of every portion of the body. 
The branches of the aorta, which are distributed throughout 
the general system, are called systemic arteries, and from these 
the blood passes into the systemic capillaries, where it again be¬ 
comes dark and impure. Next, it flows into the branches of 
the systemic veins, which at the point of their union form two 
large trunks called the superior and inferior vena cava, from 
whence it is discharged into the right auricle, from which the 
blood started in the first instance. 

The heart’s action in propelling the blood consists in the 
successive and alternate contractions and dilatations of the 
muscular walls of its two auricles and two ventricles. The 
auricles contract simultaneously; so do the ventricles. 

The heart beat naturally varies with different individuals 
according to temperament, vigor and other factors, but as a 






































































PLATE H 



The Circulatory System. 

(Detailed reproduction.) 

1. Carotid arteries. 

2. The innominate arteries. 

3. Subclavian artery. 

4. Aortic arch. 

5. Pulmonary artery. 

6. Thoracic aorta. 

7. Gastric artery. 

8. Hepatic artery. 

9. Splenip artery. 

10. Abdominal artery. 

11. Mesenteric artery. 

12. Renal artery. 

13. Superior vena cava. 

14. Innominate vein.. 


15. Subclavian vein. 

16. Jugular vein. 

17. Pulmonary veins. 

18. Interior vena cava. 

19. Hepatic vein. 

20. Gastric vein. 

21. Splenic vein. 

22. Mesenteric veins. 

23. Portal vein. 

24. Renal vein. 

25. Right'auricle. 

26. Left auricle. 

27. Right ventricle. 

28. Left ventricle. 


29. Thoracic duct. 

30. Stomach. 

31. Spleen. 


32. Liver. 

33. Kidneys. 

34. Duodenum. 


35. Ascending colon. 

36. Descending colon. 

37. Abdominal glands. 



OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


2G0 


general average we may say that it beats seventy times a min¬ 
ute, four thousand two hundred times an hour, one hundred 
thousand eight hundred times a day and over thirty-six million 
times a year. At each beat of the heart, over two ounces of 
blood are thrown out of it, one hundred and eighty ounces a 
minute, six hundred pounds an hour, and about eight tons per 
day. 

All the blood in the body passes through the heart in three 
minutes. 

This little organ, by its ceaseless industry, pumps each 
day what is equal to lifting one hundred and thirty tons one 
foot high, or one ton one hundred and thirty feet high. 

The aorta subdivides into several large arteries, these sub¬ 
divide into smaller ones, and so the division goes on until the 
ultimate arteries are so fine that they cannot be compared 
even to a hair in size. As the arteries carry the blood out from 
the heart so the veins carry it back again after it has performed 
its work of rebuilding the cells of the body. The veins exist 
everywhere in the body as canals supplementary to the ar¬ 
teries. 

Between the veins and their corresponding arteries lie tiny 
blood vessels—hair-like canals—that connect the veins with 
the arteries, and these are the capillaries which I have already 
referred to. They are so infinitesimally fine that they can be 
seen only with the aid of a powerful microscope. It is these 
capillaries that carry the new nourishment to be absorbed by 
the cells of tissue, and between the capillaries and the cell-walls 
lies the useful lymph. But we shall take up the study of the 
lymph later on. 

The blood is forced from the arteries into the capillaries 
by means of the contraction of the very elastic walls of the 
former. One of the great difficulties of extreme old age lies 
in the fact that the walls of the arteries lose or tend to lose 
this elastic quality. It is this quality also which enables one 
to “feel his pulse,” for as the contraction or so-called “beat” 
of the heart forces another two or three ounces of blood into 
the arteries it causes this wave, which we feel in the pulse, to 




270 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


pass through all of the arteries. The walls of the arteries ex¬ 
pand with each such wave of blood, but so remarkable is their 
elastic and contractive power that in the scant interval of a 
part of a second elapsing before the next wave or pulse, they 
have forced the excess of blood through the capillaries and de¬ 
creased their size. By counting the pulse of any artery to be 
reached conveniently one can count the number of heart beats 
per minute. Everyone is familiar with the manifestation of 
the pulse at the radial artery, near 
the outer side of the wrist, when 
the palm is turned upward. 

Blood itself consists of a liquid 
plasma, which is of a light straw 
color. The bright red color of arte¬ 
rial blood is due to the presence of 
red corpuscles, and the red coloring 
matter of these corpuscles is called 
hemoglobin. These red corpuscles 
are disks that are concave on both 
sides, and of an average diameter 
of 1-3200 of an inch. They are so 
elastic that they can be forced 
readily through openings of diame¬ 
ter less than their own. Once on 
the other side of the opening the 
corpuscles resume their natural 
shape. So tiny are these corpuscles that millions of them will 
lie in the space of a square inch; were all of these corpuscles in 
a healthy adult person arranged in a single, continuous line, 
they would cover a distance of one hundred thousand miles. 
The important work of the red corpuscles is to carry oxygen 
to all parts of the body. 

Exercise creates a demand for more oxygen and thus 
forces the inhalation of greater quantities of air; this oxygen 
naturally must be carried through the body, and this increases 
the work of the red corpuscles. Nature meets this greater de¬ 
mand upon the red corpuscles by supplying more of them to 



A Vein Laid Open. 

1. Arrow shows the direction in 
which the blood is flowing. 

2. Semilunar valves. (They pre¬ 
vent the return of the blood to the 
capillaries.) 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


271 


do the work. Up to the limit of beneficial exercise the num¬ 
ber of red corpuscles is steadily increased. When exercise is 
carried past the point of benefit, and exhaustion begins, the 
number of red corpuscles diminishes. Scientific physical 
trainers sometimes examine under the microscope samples of 
blood taken from athletes in various stages of exercising. It is 
possible, thus, to determine, approximately, the extent to 
which any exercise is carried with benefit. I shall, however, 
refer to this matter later. 

There are also in the blood colorless corpuscles, generally 
known as the white, and scientifically as leucocytes. These are 
somewhat larger than the red corpuscles, averaging 1-2500 of 
an inch in diameter. They are irregular in shape, are con¬ 
stantly changing their shapes, and appear to be very active. 
Leucocytes increase immediately after feeding, and are much 
less numerous when the stomach is empty. The functions of 
neither the red nor the white corpuscles are very well under¬ 
stood, and there are many conjectures in the place of facts. 
But it is known that the presence of a generous proportion of 
red corpuscles denotes health, and that exercise, up to the limit 
of benefit, increases the number of the red corpuscles. 

The Lymphatic System of the human body is in actuali¬ 
ty a supplementary circulation. The blood current of the gen¬ 
eral circulation is the common carrier of the body as the rail¬ 
roads are in a country. The blood at various points in the sys¬ 
tem, such as the lungs and intestines, picks up the va¬ 
rious nutriment necessary, such as oxygen and digested food¬ 
stuffs, and, carrying them to the various tissues, there un¬ 
loads them. At the same time, while in the tissues, the various 
broken-down products of human life are picked up by the 
blood current, and carried to those several organs, namely, 
skin, lungs and kidneys, by which they are excreted. Thus, we 
see that the blood circulation is a continuous round of action. 
The lymphatic system, on the other hand, differs from the 
above by beginning the flow of its contents in the tissues, stead¬ 
ily converging toward the center of the body and ending in the 
depths of the chest. The lymph is formed by the fluid constitu- 

Vol. 1—18 




272 MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ents of tlie blood passing through the walls of the blood vessels. 
It may be described as blood fluid without the red corpuscles. 

Anatomically, the lymphatic system consists of three 
parts, lymph spaces, lymphatic vessels, and lymphatic glands. 
The lymph spaces are cavities, mostly of microscopic size, situ¬ 
ated between the cellular elements of the tissues. The lymph¬ 
atic vessels are delicate tubes with transparent walls formed of 
the same three coats as the arteries, and found in all parts of 
the body, except the nails, superficial skin, hair and carti¬ 
lages; they are provided with numerous valves, like the veins 
which open only toward the center of the body and which give 
a characteristic beaded appearance to these vessels. 

The lymphatic vessels found in the abdomen, connected 
with the stomach and intestines, are called lacteals, from the 
Latin word for milk, because during digestion the fluid which 
they carry is white, like milk, owing to the fact that it is by 
this means that the absorbed emulsified fats are taken into the 
system. It must be remembered that while some nourishment 
is absorbed from the stomach directly into the blood, yet that 
organ is more concerned in the work of digesting food. It is 
in the small intestine that absorption is most active. 

Embedded in the mucous lining of the small intestine are 
millions and millions of villi. (Villus is the singular form of 
the word.) These villi are so tiny that hundreds of them are 
to be found in a space half an inch square. Each villus con¬ 
sists of a cluster of blood vessels and one vessel called the lac¬ 
teal. The lacteal absorbs from the chyle in the small intes¬ 
tine the nourishment that it wants, and infinitely minute par¬ 
ticles of fat are taken up. The lacteal fluid is not yet in proper 
condition for combination with the blood, so it passes from the 
lacteals into the mesenteric glands. These glands, each about 
the size of an almond, and some one hundred and fifty in num¬ 
ber, are situated in the mesentery, a membrane suspended from 
the rear wall of the abdomen. 

It is supposed that in the mesenteric glands the lacteal 
fluid is filtered; afterward the fluid flows into a reservoir, 
known as the receptaculum chyli, placed against the front of 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


273 


the spinal column in the upper portion of the abdominal cavity. 
From this reservoir there runs a large lymphatic vessel, called 
the thoracic duct, upward and to the left along the spinal col¬ 
umn until it finally ends by an open mouth in the junction of 
the great veins at the root of the left side of the neck; thus 
pouring its contents directly into the blood current on its re¬ 
turn to the heart. This thoracic duct, besides bringing this 
milky fluid from the lacteals of the abdomen, is also the final 
conveyor for all of the lymph from the lower extremities, abdo¬ 
men and chest. It is about fifteen to eighteen inches long in 
the adult, and is guarded at its termination by double, half¬ 
moon shaped valves. On the right side of the neck, symmetri¬ 
cally placed with the termination of the thoracic duct on the 
left, is a short, large lymphatic vessel known as the right 
lymphatic duct. This is the virtual terminus of the lymphatic 
vessels of the head and upper extremity of the right side. It 
also discharges its contents into the junction of the great veins 
at the root of the neck, but on the right side. Its terminal 
opening is guarded similarly to that of the thoracic duct. 

Situated in the course of these lymphatic vessels, chiefly 
in the great cavities of the body, along the course of the great 
blood vessels in the spaces near the larger joints and distrib¬ 
uted in the neck, are small, solid, round or oval bodies called 
lymphatic glands. These glands are composed of an outside 
fibrous capsule, which sends partitions inward in all directions 
forming irregular spaces in which lie the gland-pulp or lymph¬ 
oid tissue. The latter consists of a web-like network of fine 
fibers, holding in its meshes the lymph cells. These lymph cells 
resemble in every particular the white corpuscles of the blood, 
and, in fact, are the direct parents of the majority of these 
corpuscles. 

When a lymphatic vessel arrives in the neighborhood of 
one of these glands, it breaks up into several branches, which 
enter the gland, and there further divide into a network of 
very small vessels resembling the capillaries of the blood circu¬ 
lation. When about to leave the gland these tiny vessels re¬ 
unite into several tubes resembling those which entered the 




274 


MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


gland. And these again in turn unite to form a single lymph¬ 
atic vessel continuing its way toward the center of the body. 
The lymph, or the fluid which is carried by this supplementary 
circulation, is formed by the filtration of the liquid of the blood 
through the walls of the capillaries into the lymph spaces, 
which lie outside the capillaries and between the cells of the 
various tissues. This lymph thus carries to the tissues the 
nutriment which they need for their organic activity, and, losing 
that part of its cargo, takes up from the tissues the waste 
products of animal life and carries them onward and inward, 
finalty to pour them into the blood current at the root of the 
neck, from thence to be taken by the blood to the various ex¬ 
cretory organs. 

By this time it must become evident to the reader, that 
while the blood circulation is the common carrier of the body, 
the lymphatic system is the main distributing and collecting 
agency. 

The lymphatic glands, which have previously been describ¬ 
ed, have a function in the human body peculiarly their own, 
situated as they are in the course of the lymph flow and form¬ 
ing a part of the channel through which that fluid must go, 
they act as filters of that liquid. This filtration is accomplished 
in two ways: First, mechanically; and, second, organically. 
When anything foreign or deleterious to the wellbeing of the 
system at large is picked up and carried inward by the lymph 
current, the first lymphatic glands with which this antagonis¬ 
tic material comes in contact attempt to bar its progress. As 
a result of this work, the glands swell, become tender and pain¬ 
ful and in many cases soften, break down and discharge, 
through the surface of the body, a fluid resembling pus; by 
this means removing the offending material from the interior 
of the system and making void any possibility of danger from 
its previous presence. Examples of the foregoing function 
of the lymphs are of more than daily occurrence. 

With this understanding of the action of the lymphatic 
glands, we will still further appreciate the value of Physcult- 
opathic methods in the treatment of disease, as compared with 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


275 


any of the old-time orthodox measures. As I have noted in 
an earlier chapter, there is really only one disease, in spite of 
its thousands of varying manifestations, and that is a defec¬ 
tive condition of the blood. When the latter is impoverished 
or impure, it is utterly impossible for any part of the body to 
be in the right condition, since the minutest tissues and cells of 
every organ depend absolutely upon the circulation. If, when 
struggling with disease, we relieve the lymphatic glands of 
their burdens as much as possible, and assist the depurating 
organs in their work of eliminating wastes and poisons by 
natural methods, then we hasten the process by which the body 
returns to its normal state. 

The quality and purity of the blood stream, perhaps next 
to the possession of an adequate supply of nerve-energy, is 
the most important of all factors in the preservation of health 
and life. In truth, the degree of nerve energy and the state 
of the blood are so interdependent that one is scarcely justi¬ 
fied in attempting to consider them separately and independ¬ 
ently. Either one is impossible without the other, as we have 
already shown. If the blood is kept pure and rich, and if it 
circulates actively and vigorously, then every part of the body 
will be perfectly provided for, the nervous system will be 
charged with vital energy, and it will be impossible for any 
part of the entire human system to become deranged except 
through the accident of external violence or the introduction 
of poisons, either directly into the blood or through the 
stomach. 

Can the heart be strengthened? This is a question that 
belongs rather to another part of this work, dealing with the 
practical application of our knowledge of the body and its 
functions, in the treatment of disease and the building of the 
highest degree of health and physical energy. However, I 
should say briefly that the condition of the heart can be 
strengthened and improved in every way by Physcultopathic 
methods, the circulation thereby becoming more active and 
vigorous. The condition of the heart and also the elastic and 
vigorous state of the walls of the arteries, will be influenced 




276 


MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


by anything that tends to build constitutional vigor and to 
promote the welfare of the body as a whole. I may say that 
the heart is influenced in two ways. For one thing, the heart, 
like any other organ, will be invigorated and improved by the 
possession of an exceptional degree of vital or nervous energy 
and a pure and perfect condition of the blood. Further than 
this, however, it is able to do its work much more easily when 
the entire body is in a normal state. When other organs and 
tissues are overworked in the struggle to cope with any disease, 
the heart is likewise compelled to work much harder, and the 
excessive strain is likely to prove detrimental. 

The heart, as we have seen, is necessarily a very powerful 
organ. Even in those cases where it is supposed to be “weak,” 
it is still a muscular organism of remarkable power, for other¬ 
wise life could not be sustained. Many cases of supposed 
heart trouble are really the result of other conditions. Let 
the possessor of a “weak heart” take courage, therefore, for if 
it were really weak it is unlikely that he would ever have sur¬ 
vived his infancy. If it has enjoyed sufficient vigor to go on 
with its incessant and arduous labors year after year until he 
has attained his maturity or middle age, then he can rest as¬ 
sured that by the rational methods which it is my pleasure 
and privilege to teach in these volumes, he will be able to bring 
it up to and maintain it in a normal degree of strength and 
power. 




CHAPTER X. 


THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM—THE CHANNELS 
OE PURIFICATION. 

T HE absolute and uninterrupted persistence of the act 
of respiration is one of the wonders and also one of 
the most imperative essentials of life. Its cessation 
for only a few moments means death. We can give our stomachs 
a rest if we choose, even for days, and we might be able tempo¬ 
rarily to suspend some of our other functions, but breathing 
must he continuous. For this reason we are accustomed to 
speak of the lungs along with the heart under the classification 
of vital organs. 

Just think of the mysterious and wonderful organization 
of the lungs, perfect and ready for service in the body of the 
babe even before it comes into the world. Then when it is final¬ 
ly ushered into this environment of earth and air, when the 
tiny passages and infinitesimal cells of its wee lungs are first 
ventilated with our fluid atmosphere, and the first expulsion of 
this air gives rise to that never failing little cry—to its hearers 
the most affecting and at the same time most joyful of all 
cries—the new little man or woman begins the breathing which 
will cease only when life ceases. Truly, no more dramatic mo¬ 
ment could he conceived. 

Think of the newness of those diminutive and delicate 
baby lungs, and at the same time of their faultless mechanism. 
Think also of their strength and enduring power, how they 
serve unfailingly through all the years of infancy and child¬ 
hood, through rough and boisterous boyhood or romping girl¬ 
hood, through the active endeavors of youth and the labors 
of adult life, persisting and struggling on for years and years, 
in spite of confined rooms and vitiated air in many cases, and 
finally, even through the feebleness of extreme age, when the 
muscles falter, the limbs are palsied and the sight is dimmed, 
how still they keep up the uninterrupted function which 
commenced on that momentous day of birth. 

The processes of life depend, among other things, upon 

277 


278 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


chemical action, requiring most of all a constant supply of 
oxygen in order that the essential combustion may be carried 
on and waste eliminated. This oxygen is supplied to the blood 
from the air through the marvellous mechanism of the lungs. 
But not alone this, for the lungs are the medium through which 
the body is relieved of waste-poisons which are constantly be¬ 
ing produced in the processes of living, and which, if not elimi¬ 
nated, would mean the cessation of these processes within a 
few moments. 

As the blood circulates through the body, nourishing all 
the tissues and supplying to the organs of secretion the mate¬ 
rials necessary for their special work, it not only loses its nu¬ 
tritive quality but it also becomes charged with the waste mat¬ 
ter and impurities mentioned. The purification of the blood 
is accomplished by the various excretory organs, the office of 
the lungs, the most important of these, being to relieve the 
vital fluid of one of the most important of these impurities, 
namely, carbonic acid. It is for this reason that, when one 
has been compelled for some time to breathe the confined air 
of a small room, this atmosphere becomes so charged with car¬ 
bonic acid gas that it is unfit to breathe. The breathing of 
this gas, if persisted in without change of air, would prove 
fatal. 

As previously stated, the lungs supply the blood with oxy¬ 
gen at the same time that they enable it to get rid of this poison. 
The oxygen not only burns up much of the waste and refuse 
matter that gathers in the body, but in addition stimulates the 
action of the organs in general and does other work in preserv¬ 
ing health and vigor. It will be seen, therefore, that the lungs 
are most essential and important organs, being so intimately 
identified with the circulation upon which life depends. 

Later in this chapter we shall consider the other purifying 
or excretory organs, the kidneys, the skin and the helpful serv¬ 
ice of the intestinal tract. It will be noted that the functions 
of the skin are not limited to those of waste elimination, but 
its service in this respect is of very great importance and it will 
therefore be taken up in this chapter. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


279 


From the standpoint of Physcultopathy, an understanding 
of all these channels of purification is most essential. The re¬ 
lation of these special organs of elimination to the conditions 
which make disease a possibility will be obvious from what has 
already been said in previous chapters. As we have shown, 
there is fundamentally but one disease, and it lies in the im¬ 
pure and defective condition of the blood stream. When we 
speak of different diseases, we really mean only the varying 
manifestations of impure, impoverished and devitalized blood. 
If the blood be kept absolutely pure and charged with the nu¬ 
tritive elements necessary to sustain every part of the body, so 
that the important organs will be provided with the materials 
and energy with which successfully to accomplish their re¬ 
spective functions, and every tissue be kept clear and clean of 
accumulating wastes, then there can be no such thing as 
disease. 

In the study of the science of Physcultopathy we learn of 
sundry natural methods of helping the body to eliminate ac¬ 
cumulated poisons, reinforcing, as it were, the natural organs 
of depuration and hastening their own activities. In time of 
acute illness there is almost no limit to the wonders that can be 
performed by the various branches of Physcultopathy intelli¬ 
gently applied, but we can best accomplish these results only 
when we thoroughly understand the nature and action of these 
excretory organs, so that we can truly assist them. Further¬ 
more, if we are truly alive to the condition and requirements 
of these organs, seeing to it that they are normally active and 
vigorous at all times, then in most cases we shall be able to 
avoid any trace of sickness under circumstances where we 
would otherwise suffer seriously. 

Physcultopathy recognizes that errors of diet have much 
to do in the majority of cases in the causation of disease, and 
insists upon a knowledge of food value so that we may be able 
to secure the maximum of strength and energy from what we 
eat. At the same time, our more thorough study of all the 
needs of the body have shown us that it is a mistake to assume, 
as have many food reformers, that the entire question of health 




280 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


and physical vigor depends only upon the selection of a suit¬ 
able diet. A faultless diet will go far, it is true, but even the 
most perfect diet cannot prevent a lapse from one’s best physi¬ 
cal welfare if the functions of elimination are not properly car¬ 
ried on. It is not to be forgotten that an ideal diet will so 
tend to keep one in a condition of strength and health that 
the depurating organs will act under favorable conditions, that 
is, so far as the body may be affected by proper foods. But 
the most hygienic diet ever known cannot keep one in health 
if he is not normally active from a muscular standpoint and 
his habits otherwise are not such as to keep these excretory or¬ 
gans active and in the best of condition. Perfect and constant 
elimination is one of the most imperative essentials of life and 
health. Each and every human being should individually 
know and understand these things, and should make it a point 
to see that his depurating organs are working at their greatest 
possible efficiency. 

Let us consider, first, the work of the lungs in relieving the 
body of carbonic acid, and simultaneously supplying oxygen. 
Just how important is this work, did some one ask? It may 
be seen very quickly by the experience of choking or suffo¬ 
cating, by means of which the breath is shut off and the pro¬ 
cess stopped. In a few seconds a dreadful condition arises, 
accompanied by the terrible and desperate sensation of 
smothering. The lungs can no longer purify the blood stream 
which surges through them continuously at the rate of two 
to three ounces per second, or at the remarkable rate of four 
to five quarts per minute; the entire blood supply of the body 
becomes saturated with the rapidly accumulating poison; even 
the blood in the arteries loses its pure, bright scarlet, arterial 
color, this giving place to the dark crimson of the venous blood; 
and the natural color of the face, perhaps a bright pink or rosy 
flush, is changed to a dark purple. And all in a few 
seconds! If one struggles or exerts himself while choking, 
then the process is all the more rapid, the accumulation of 
the poisons being accelerated in proportion to the intensity of 
the effort. A diver, with a normal, full breath of fresh air, 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


281 


and with the advantage of the special training of his lungs, 
may survive on a single breath of air for a couple of minutes. 
But if one is caught and choked unawares, with a shallow 
supply of air in his lungs, and if he then struggles violently, 
unconsciousness comes in a few moments, with death follow¬ 
ing immediately if the situation is not relieved with the intro¬ 
duction of a full supply of fresh air into the lungs. 

The lungs occupy the greater portion of what we call the 
“chest,” this being the uppermost of the two great cavities into 
which the trunk of the body is divided. Somewhat between the 
lungs, and to the front, lies the heart, 
completing the group of vital organs 
contained in the chest and protected 
by its walls. The division of the 
trunk or torso into the two cavities 
referred to is accomplished by the 
diaphragm, a rather remarkable 
structure which forms the floor of the 
upper or lung and heart cavity, and 
the roof of the cavity beneath con¬ 
taining the digestive and other func¬ 
tional organs. There are convenient 
openings in it through which pass the 
oesophagus, the aorta, the vena cava, 
and other important channels. The 
diaphragm is chiefly a muscular 
structure, though partly tendinous, 
being perhaps best described as a 
membranous muscle. It has somewhat 
the form of a large shallow bowl in- The 
verted, so that with its contraction it 
flattens, pushing down upon the or¬ 
gans underneath, and causing the ex¬ 
pansion of the body below the waist 
line that is observed in natural 
breathing. With this contraction, thus 



Larynx with the Hyoid 
Bones and Trachea. 

1. The hyoid bone. 

2-3. Small and large cornua. 

4. Epiglottis. 

5. Thyroid cartilage. 

6. Superior horn of thyroid 
cartilage. 

7. Cricoid Cartilage. 

8. Crico-thyroid membrane. 

9. Cartilage rings of trachea. 
10-11. Trachea. 

12. Division of trachea. 

13. Left branch of trachea. 

14. Right branch of trachea. 




282 


MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


lowering the floor of the lung cavity, a partial vacuum is 
created which causes the external air to rush in. This is normal 
and natural inspiration. As a rifle, the expansion of the chest 
for the same purpose is not required except during the need for 
an exceptional amount of air. But the practice of breathing, 
with special exercises, for the improvement of the lungs, and, 
through them, of the entire body, will be taken up in another 
place. 

The lungs are of a spongy, elastic texture, but appear to 
the naked eye as if they were, in great part, solid material. 
As a matter of fact, they are hollow organs, not unlike two 
bags containing air, each bag communicating by a separate 
opening with an air tube, the trachea , through the upper por- 





The Larynx Viewed From the Front 

1. Thyroid cartilage. 

2. Cricoid cartilage. 

3. Trachea. 

4. Hyoid bone. 

5-6-7. Muscles of larynx. 

8. Muscles of epiglottis. 



me uarynx Viewed from Behind, 
Showing Muscles. 

1. Epiglottis. 

2-3. Cornua of thyroid cartilage. 

4. Cricoid cartilage. 

5. Cuneiform cartilage. 

6. Cornicula laryngis. 

7-8. Oblong and transverse bun¬ 
dles of the arytenoideus muscle, 
respectively. 

9. Thyro-arytenoideus muscle. 

10. Trachea. 









OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


283 


tion of which, the larynx, they are put in touch with the outer 
atmosphere. The aperture of the larynx can be opened or 
closed at will by an involved system of muscles. 

Each lung is enveloped in a sort of fibrous bag, which 
has a very smooth lining. The lung itself has an outer sur¬ 
face which is very smooth, and which moves easily over the 
inner surface of the bag or pleura, that envelopes it. Never¬ 
theless, the relation of lung to pleura is so intimate that there 
is no actual space between the surfaces of the two except 
after death or as the result of some diseases. 

The trachea, the large tube which is popularly known as 
the “wind-pipe,” and through which the air passes into the 
lungs, divides into two branches or bronchi —one for each 
lung. These bronchi divide and subdivide into a number of 
small branches penetrating every part of the lungs until they 
end in the fine subdivisions of the latter, called the lobules . 

Each lung is partially divided into lobes, the right organ 
having three and the left two. A lobe is composed of a large 
number of minute lobules. A lobule may be considered as 
a microscopic lung, inasmuch as it contains a branch of the 
bronchial tube as previously stated, air cells, blood vessels, 
nerves, lymphatics, etc. 

On "entering a lobule, the division of the bronchial tube 
keeps on dividing until its walls become an extremely thin 
membrane, pouched into small dilatations, called air-cells. 

Without going into a technical description of the mech¬ 
anism of the air-cells, it may be briefly stated that outside of 
them is a network of pulmonary capillaries, or minute blood¬ 
vessels. Air, on being inhaled, comes in contact with the 
blood in the lung-capillaries by means of a very wonderful 
device of Nature, by which there is an interchange of oxy¬ 
gen of the air for the carbonic acid in the blood through the 
membrane of the air-cells. This carbonic acid is exhaled, 
there is a distribution of the oxygen, and so the process of res¬ 
piration continues indefinitely. The enlargement of the chest 
in inspiration is a muscular act, the muscles concerned being 
chiefly the diaphragm, the external intercostal muscles, a por- 





284 MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


tion of the intercostal muscles and some others. The relaxa¬ 
tion of the muscles after such effort brings about expiration, 
under normal conditions. 

In singing, sneezing, coughing, etc., certain other mus¬ 
cles are brought into play, however, the chief of which are 
to be found in the abdominal region, together with those that 
depress the ribs. 

The blood is conveyed to the lungs by the pulmonary ar¬ 
teries to be purified in the former in the way described. The 
blood needed for the nutrition of the lungs and their con¬ 
nective parts is supplied by the bronchial arteries, and hav¬ 
ing fulfilled its purpose is carried into the pulmonary arteries 
and is purified and vitalized in due course. 

The blood, as it passes through the lungs, changes greatly 
in color, the dark crimson of the venous fluid being ex¬ 
changed for the bright scarlet of the arterial blood. In addi¬ 
tion, the blood, as intimated, gains in oxygen, loses carbonic 
acid, becomes one or two degrees warmer, coagulates sooner 
and more firmly, and con¬ 
tains more fibrin. 

The oxygen which is ab¬ 
sorbed into the blood from 
the atmosphere through the 
action of the lungs is com¬ 
bined chemically with the 
hemoglobin of the red blood 
corpuscles. In this condition 
it is carried in the arterial 
blood to the various parts of 
the body and brought into 
contact with the elementary 
portions of the tissues. In 
so doing, it co-operates with 
the process of nutrition and 
in the removal of disintegra¬ 
ted tissue matter during 
which a certain proportion 



Bronchial Tubes With The’r Lobules. 


(Highly magnified.) 

1. Bronchus. 

2. Lobules. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


285 


of the gas disappears and a like amount of carbonic acid and 
water is formed. 

The venous blood, charged with this same carbonic acid, 
returns to the lungs where the gas is exhaled and a fresh 
supply of oxygen is secured. 

The stopping of the respiratory movements from any 
cause results in the retarding of the circulation and finally 
venous congestion of the nervous centers, with resulting death. 

Considering the vital character of the function of the 
lungs, it will be seen how important it is that we provide nat¬ 
ural and favorable conditions for their exercise, and also that 
we use them freely.' Men and women, especially those con¬ 
fined to indoor occupations and sedentary habits, commonly 
neglect their lungs by persistent shallow breathing. This is 
none the less detrimental because it is thoughtless. The only 
surprise is that those who are guilty of such neglect get along 
as well as they do. It is only another proof of the wonder¬ 
fully efficient character of the lungs that they do so well under 
such unfavorable circumstances. 

With the knowledge that we have just gained we will 
realize better than ever before the incalculable value of pure 
air, particularly the atmosphere of the great outdoors. Every¬ 
one should be in the open as much as possible, but those who 
cannot spend their days outside should at least make it a point 
to have their rooms and places of business so ventilated that 
there is a continuously renewed supply of air. Even the man 
who operates a factory would find it an advantage, from a 
business standpoint, to provide for his workers in this way, 
for they would be able to accomplish more and better work 
for him. It is true that in severe winter weather the demands 
of proper ventilation will require a greater expense of fuel 
in order to keep a place comfortably warm, by the common 
methods of heating, but the gain in health and working energy 
will more than offset this. Furthermore, with a more uni¬ 
versal appreciation of these facts, we may anticipate that in 
time there will come a radical revolution in the popular meth- 




286 


MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ods of heating, steam radiators and old-fashioned stoves giv¬ 
ing way to intelligently arranged systems by which the out¬ 
door air is warmed and then, still fresh and pure, introduced 
into the room. Many progressive people already use this 
method. 

In the practice of special breathing exercises it is impor¬ 
tant to avoid holding the breath for more than a moment, for 
reasons which our study of the actions of the lungs has just 
made clear. To hold the breath is to defeat the very purpose 
for which one may take breathing exercises, inasmuch as it is 
only a form of temporary suffocation. To hold the breath is 
to produce a condition in the lungs similar to that in an en¬ 
closed room in which most of the air has been vitiated by re¬ 
peated breathing. 

There is also a special reason why one should take some 
moderate, healthful exercise, if possible, in connection with 
his daily breathing exercise. This is because we can by this 
means more perfectly accomplish the oxygenation of the blood 
and the combustion and elimination of the wastes of the body. 
We all know how muctumore rapidly we breathe when taking 
vigorous exercise, for under such circumstances we consume 
and require far more oxygen than when physically passive or 
at rest. Two wrestlers, for instance, will probably consume 
as much oxygen as a score of idle spectators in the same room. 
When taking voluntary breathing exercise with the body oth¬ 
erwise in a condition of comparative rest, we accomplish a 
more perfect change of the air in the lungs (there is always 
a certain residue of air in the lungs, for they are never en¬ 
tirely emptied), but this does not mean that all of the avail¬ 
able oxygen inhaled is taken up by the blood. The oxygen is 
there in larger quantities than usual, and this is an advan¬ 
tage, as is also the greater facility thus offered for giving up 
the carbonic acid, hut no matter how well filled with air the 
lungs may be, the blood cannot take up much more oxygen 
than is called for by the demands of the body and the degree 
of combustion that is going on through all of the various tis¬ 
sues. This need or demand for oxygen might be referred to. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


287 


in colloquial terminology as a condition of oxygen-hunger, and 
the degree of this will determine just how much oxygen will 
be absorbed from the air in the lungs. Active exercise will 
create this condition of oxygen-hunger and the deep breath¬ 
ing which naturally ensues under such circumstances is far 
more beneficial than that taken in a state of general bodily 
rest, although this, too, as we have seen, is highly to be rec¬ 
ommended. The amount of oxygen absorbed, of course, is 
partly a matter of the activity of the circulation, for the red 
corpuscles are always well supplied with the vitalizing and 
electrical gas, and always leave the lungs in a bright scarlet 
condition. When we need more oxygen, then the heart beats 
faster and the blood streams through the capillaries of the 
lungs much faster, picking up the oxygen from the air-cells 
more rapidly and giving up the poisonous gas with equal 
speed and in similar volume. 

Excretory Organs. —Working in connection with the 
lungs, as already noted, are the kidneys and the pores of the 
skin, removing the other wastes of the body. The intestines are 
sometimes regarded as of a depurgating character, but they are 
properly digestive and assimilative organs, their excretions 
having to do chiefly with the waste matter of the foods and di¬ 
gestive fluids. However, they do assist somewhat in the 
general work of elimination, and especially during diseased 
conditions, where there is an excess of poisons in the body. 
Under such circumstances, when the appetite fails, the tongue 
is coated and the breath bad, one may surmise that the entire 
alimentary tract is brought into service for the purpose of eli¬ 
mination. The advantage of drinking water freely in such 
a case is obvious, although the increased supply of water in 
the body generally is favorable to the more efficient action of 
the kidneys and skin as well. 

The Kidneys are the organs of the human body by which 
the major part of the broken-down or waste material resulting 
from physical activity is excreted or cast off from the body. 
These organs are situated deep in the loins, one on either 

Vol. 1—19 




288 


MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


side of the spinal column, embedded in a mass of fat. Each 
measures about four inches in length, two and one-half inches 
in breadth, and about one inch and a quarter in thickness. 
They weigh, in the average adult, about five ounces, and their 
approximate shape is that of the well-known kidney bean. 
The kidneys lie with their greater convexity toward the sides 
of the body, and the depression, or nick, toward the middle 
line, each facing the one on the opposite side. In this depres¬ 
sion, all the blood vessels and nerves of the kidneys have their 
entrance or exit, and from it comes a tube, called a ureter, 
which carries the urine from the kidney to the bladder. 

The right kidney is situated directly behind the liver, and 
the ascending portion of the large intestine; while the left has, 
in front of it, the large end of the stomach, and the first part 
of the descending portion of the large intestine. 

The lower tips of both kidneys are two inches above the 
upper edge of the haunch bones. 

The naked-eye appearance of a longitudinal section of the 
kidneys shows a picture of which Plate E (page 126 ) is a re¬ 
production. The line at the extreme circumference represents 
a fibrous capsule which envelopes the entire kidney, and which, 
sending projecting partitions within, forms the framework of 
the organ. 

Next you will notice a rather narrow band, which is called 
the cortical, or outer portion of the kidney. This is composed 
of convoluted, or twisted and straight, tiny tubes, each of 
which arises in a spherical, hollow capsule of minute size, con¬ 
taining a bundle of twisted capillaries or small blood vessels. 
The central or medullary portion, as may be seen from the 
picture, is composed of pyramids, eight to eighteen in num¬ 
ber, with their peaks or points directed toward and located at 
the depression, or sinus, on the internal edge of the kidney. 
These pyramids are composed of bundles of miscrocopic 
straight tubes which finally join together in one opening at 
the apex of the pyramid. The fibrous capsule previously de¬ 
scribed as investing the whole organ dips into the depression 
on the inner edge of the kidney, covering each and every 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


289 


pyramid’s point, but at each such point there is a mouth, or 
opening, from the final tube of each pyramid. Surrounding 
all of these openings, and narrowing as it leaves the kidney, 
is a fibrous funnel, known as the pelvis of the kidney, which 
unites at its narrow end with the ureter, or pipe of transmis¬ 
sion to the bladder. 

The circulation of the blood in the kidney being of prime 
importance in this organ, calls for special description. The 
renal or kidney artery, which is a branch from the largest ar¬ 
tery in the body, divides on its entrance into the depression of 
the kidney, into five branches, which as they pass up between 
the pyramids subdivide again and again, finally terminat¬ 
ing in two sets of capillaries. One of these sets may be found 
occupying the cavity of the minute spherical capsules previ¬ 
ously described, while the other capillaries ramify about the 
twisted and straight tubules. The blood is re-collected from 
these capillaries by little veins, which join each other as they 
descend between the pyramids, finally to combine into one, 
called the renal vein, which ultimately pours its contents into 
the largest vein in the body. Thus, you see that the circula¬ 
tion through the kidney is directly from the largest artery in 
the body to the largest vein in the body. 

The broken-down or waste material of the various tis¬ 
sues of the body goes through various processes before it is 
prepared to be excreted by the kidneys. As any tissue breaks 
down and wears out, the used-up portion is dissolved by the 
blood at the place where it was produced, and carried by the 
blood current to the liver. In this organ the waste materials 
from all parts of the body are collected, and so chemically 
changed or transformed that they are fit for filtration from 
the blood by the kidneys. These changed materials, the most 
noticeable of which is urea, are again dissolved in the blood 
at the liver and carried from thence to the capillaries in the 
kidneys. 

The walls of these capillaries, especially those of the first 
set described, are exceedingly thin, and the pressure in the 
blood vessels being much greater than in the cavities of the 




290 MA CFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


tiny spherical capsules and minute tubes, the water of the 
blood (containing in solution the urea and other waste prod¬ 
ucts) passes through this thin wall, leaving the solids and al¬ 
buminous constituents of the blood behind, and flowing down 
through the little tubes, is known as urine. 

Human urine is a straw-yellow, limpid fluid, transparent, 
with a mild odor, acid and weighing, normally, about one and 
one-fortieth times the weight of pure water. Diseased con¬ 
ditions, not only in the kidneys, but in the heart, in the brain, 
in the lungs and in the arteries of other parts of the body, as 
well as natural changes in the blood pressure in distant parts 
of the body, cause great modifications in the quantity, as well 
as the quality of the urine excreted. For example: In sum¬ 
mer, when the skin of the body, owing to the external heat, is 
filled with blood, sweating is profuse, and the quantity is 
markedly diminished. In winter, when the skin is chilled and 
the blood vessels in it contracted, the amount of urine is in¬ 
creased. Under stress of nervous shock or emotion, the urine 
is many times greater in quantity. Disease or disturbance of 
the digestive organs, especially of the liver, cause a defective 
transformation of waste materials into the urea, producing 
by-products, such as uric acid and urates, which, when ex¬ 
creted in the urine, cause the latter to become darker, very 
acid, and to deposit the well-known brick-dust sediment. This 
is one of the greatest causes of stone in the bladder. Diseases 
of the kidneys themselves, wasting diseases of the general 
system and any temporary stress of over-work or worry is 
liable to cause albumin to appear in the urine. Disease of 
the nervous system, in some of its many forms, causes sugar 
to make its appearance in this excretion and its permanent ap¬ 
pearance therein is a symptom of the disease known as 
diabetes. 

The Skin. —The human skin, with its appendages, cover¬ 
ing, as it does, the exterior of the whole body, is a most 
marvellously and ingeniously constructed tissue. Not only is 
it arranged and built in a general way to fulfill all the claims 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


291 


which may be made upon it, but it is also modified in various 
special localities so as to perfectly serve special functions. 

For purposes of description the skin may be divided into 
three layers: First, the outermost one, called the epidermis or 
cuticle; second, the middle one, the derma or true skin; and, 
third, the subcutaneous layer. (See Plate A, page 8.) 

The epidermis, or cuticle, being the most exterior, is in 
continual contact with all the constant rubbing and pressure 
to which the body is subjected. It is, therefore, from a purely 
mechanical point of view, the protector of the body. Owing 
to the constant rubbing and pressure of this layer, there is a 
steady loss from its surface by destruction and scaling of the 
living cells of which it is composed. In order, therefore, that 
under normal conditions this covering be not totally lost, there 
is a steady growth from the bottom upward of these cells. The 
structure of this layer consists of one class of cells, called 
epithelial (which have already been noted in the classification 
of the tissues of the human body), but whose shape varies very 
markedly from within outward. At the inner surface of this 
layer, the cells are cylindrical in shape and soft in texture, 
growing more spherical and less soft as we reach the middle, 
while at the surface the cells become flat, dry, and in some 
cases almost horny in consistency. The outer surface of this 
layer is virtually smooth, while its under or inner surface is 
undulating, dipping in between and rising over the promi¬ 
nences of the derma or true skin. In the innermost layer of 
this epidermis, we find the coloring matter which gives the 
lightness or darkness of shade to the human skin. This col¬ 
oring matter is the same for all races, black, yellow or white, 
the difference of shade being produced by the amount of it 
present. Sunlight has the effect of causing more color to be 
deposited in the skin upon which it shines. 

The nails on one’s fingers and toes are but modifications 
of this epidermal, layer of the skin. They consist of the same 
epithelial cells, but are more flattened, more closely packed to¬ 
gether and more horny in structure. At the base of each nail, 
there is a so-called root, embedded in a fold of the skin, from 




292 


MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


whence comes the growth in length of the nail, and under¬ 
neath its concave surface is the matrix or “quick” of the nail, 
which is very full of blood vessels, and by means of which the 
nail grows in thickness. These nails on the human body, 
which at the present time merely protect the ends of the fingers 
and toes, were, in the early ages of human existence, intended 
also to serve, not only as tools, crude though they were, but as 
weapons of offense and defense. (See Plate A, page 8.) 

The second layer of the skin, the derma or true skin, is a 
tough, flexible and highly elastic tissue, protecting the underly¬ 
ing parts, acting as the chief organ of the sense of touch and 
effecting by its various glands, not only the excretion of sweat, 
but of an oily material whose purpose is to prevent the too- 
rapid drying of the epidermis. Throughout the derma are tiny 
muscular fibers that contract the skin. 

This true skin consists of two layers. First, the papillary 
layer , situated upon its free surface, presents innumerable, 
minute, conical eminences, called papillae, which are very full 
of tiny blood vessels and whose average size is 1-100 of an 
inch in length, by 1-200 of an inch in diameter at the base. 
These little mounds are very thickly arranged in paralleled 
curved lines, forming ridges, in the more highly sensitive re¬ 
gions, while in the less sensitive parts they are more thinly and 
irregularly distributed. In each of these minute mounds are 
found the terminations of the sensitive nerves or nerves of 
touch. It is from the blood vessels of the papillae that the flow 
of blood comes when the skin is scratched. There are no blood 
vessels, lymphatics or nerves in the outer skin, the epidermis. 
There can be no pain in any of the cell layers of the epidermis, 
and such pain as is felt in the skin is inflicted, through the epi¬ 
dermis, upon the dermis. Second, the reticular layer contains 
interlacing bands of firm, white fibrous tissue, with yellow 
elastic fibers wherever hair exists, also lymph spaces and blood 
vessels. 

Beneath this true skin is the subcutaneous layer . This con¬ 
sists of an open network of fibrous tissue, connecting the true 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


293 


skin with the tissues underneath and holding in its meshes a 
greater or smaller number of fat cells. 

In the true skin, or the subcutaneous layer, we find multi¬ 
tudes of sweat glands. Each of these has a single excretory 
duct and a little coil. The duct passes up between the little 
eminences and opens on the free surface of the epidermis. 

Some sweat glands are found in the fatty tissue 
directly under the true skin. The sweat gland is a 
tube about a quarter of an inch in length, and the inner 
end is closed. These little tubes lie coiled in balls that are 
something like one-sixtieth of an inch in diameter. From the 
ball the tube extends wavily outward through the epidermis. 
At the back of the neck there are about 400 sweat pores to 
the square inch, while in the palm of the hand there are some 
3,000 to the square inch. The pore is the tiny open end of the 
gland in the outer surface of the cuticle. The sweat itself is 
made up of moisture, some salts, a little urea (which is the 
most important waste product of the body), and the skin also 
depurates about one-fiftieth as much carbon dioxide as do the 
lungs. 

The direct relation between the skin and the kidneys is 
shown by the fact that the more perspiration there is on the 
skin the less fluid is eliminated by the kidneys. In the winter, 
when the skin does not perspire as freely as in summer, the se¬ 
cretion of the kidneys is greatly increased. Conversely, it will 
be noted that when the kidneys are very active there is not 
present as much perspiration on the surface of the body. Ex¬ 
ercise, therefore, is of direct benefit to the kidneys, inasmuch 
as it relieves the latter organs of much of what would otherwise 
be their work. 

It must be understood that not all of the perspiration from 
the sweat glands is visible to the eye. Much of this perspira¬ 
tion passes off from the body in the form of vapor. It is to 
be understood, also, that perspiration must always result in 
the cooling of the skin. It requires heat to convert fluid into 
vapor, as in the case of the fire that is needed under a boiler in 
order to convert water into steam. The heat that is used in 




294 MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


converting the liquid of sweat into vapor is drawn from the 
skin, and thus the skin must be left cooler through the act of 
evaporation. 

We are now in a position to understand why'normal health 
is impossible unless the skin be healthy. With a “bad” skin 
one of the important eliminating organs of the body is out of 
repair, and the work of depuration that is thrown thus upon 
the other organs can be only partially performed by them. 

Nourishment by the proper foods is the first essential of 
a healthy skin, since the bodily fluids that carry the nourish¬ 
ment are incessantly engaged in the process of revitalizing the 
skin. Exercise brings profuse perspiration to the skin, thus 
vigorously eliminating waste matters, a portion of which would 
remain otherwise in the skin and become poisonous to the en¬ 
tire body. 

The hairs, which, like the nails, are modified portions of the 
epidermis, are found everywhere in the skin, except the palms 
of the hands and the soles of the feet, but vary greatly in size. 
Each hair consists of a root and a shaft, all situated in a deep, 
narrow cavity, known as a hair follicle. This follicle traverses 
the whole thickness of the skin, beginning generally in a sub¬ 
cutaneous layer and opening on the free surface of the epi¬ 
dermis. Into the deeper part of this follicle, there generally 
open from two to five glands, known as sebaceous glands, which 
secrete the oily substance previously mentioned. Each hair 
has attached to its base a minute muscular fiber by which it 
may be raised to an erect position. The sebaceous glands are 
found wherever there is hair, and are most abundant in the 
scalp, face, arm-pits, and around the various openings of the 
body. Although generally opening into the hair follicles, they 
frequently open on the free surface of the skin. These open¬ 
ings become very noticeable when plugged with dried secretion 
and discolored black by dirt, when they are known as “black¬ 
heads.” 

The skin of the human body has quite a number of various 
duties to perform. The most manifest of these functions, aside 
from that of depuration, is that of protecting from harm the 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


295 


more delicate structures that lie beneath it. This protection is 
accomplished in two ways: First, mechanically, by means of the 
cuticle or epidermis. This takes up the persistent constant rub¬ 
bing and pressure which is applied to it every moment of the be¬ 
ing’s life, the outer cells being constantly destroyed or rubbed 
off, while new ones steadily take their places. Second, the end- 
organs of the sensitive nerve-fibers in the papillary layer being 
of three kinds, namely, nerves of sensation, nerves of heat, and 
nerves of cold, these receive corresponding sensations of pres¬ 
sure or pain, heat or coldness, and by transmitting these sensa¬ 
tions to the central nervous organism, serve as a warning to the 
individual economy that danger from injury, or extremes of 
heat or cold, is present. This warning, being followed by ac¬ 
tivities of various sorts, guards the human body from destruc¬ 
tion. 




CHAPTER XI. 

THE ORGANS OF SPECIAL SENSE. 

A MONG the most interesting of all the organs of the 
body are those of special sense, or, in other words, 
* those by means of which we are able to see exter¬ 
nal objects, to hear the noises which they may cause, to smell 
their odors, to taste them if placed in the mouth, and to feel 
their form, texture and temperature. I have already re¬ 
ferred to the functions of the sensory nerves having their end 
organs in the skin, providing for the sense of touch by which 
we are able to “feel” things, and therefore it will not be nec¬ 
essary to consider them further in this chapter. It may be 
said, even of the other organs, that through them we literally 
feel external objects, that is, we “feel” the sensations produced 
upon our sense organs by the vibrations of light or of sound. 
In the case of sensations of taste and smell, we “feel” directly 
the qualities of the objective matter, on the one hand, and the 
gaseous or dust-like emanations from it on the other. 

The sense organs have an importance which is peculiar to 
themselves, inasmuch as they perform a kind of service which 
is utterly distinct from that of any of the other organs of the 
body. It is through them that we perceive our relations to 
the outside world by reason of which we are able to use and 
direct the voluntary muscular system, the immediate servant 
of our own volition, in an effective manner. Just think—all 
that we know of the great world is what we have learned 
through these organs of sense. They give us our conceptions 
of everything, even the pictures of our imaginations being 
necessarily combinations made up of the various sensations 
that we have experienced through these sense organs. Fancy, 
indeed, into what a dark, dead and meaningless existence we 
would be plunged were we deprived of the aid of these vari¬ 
ous senses. We all know of some unfortunates who are de¬ 
prived of one of them, and, surely, life cannot mean much un¬ 
der such circumstances; but were one to suffer the loss of all 
his special senses, then certainly would existence mean noth- 


296 



PLATE I 



At Left is 
Section Showing th< 
Transition of the 
Sclerotic Coat Into tl 


(Greatly magnified.) 

1. Anterior chamber. 

2. Posterior chamber. 

3. Lens. 

4 Vitreous humor. 

5-6. Ciliary muscles. 

7. Canal of Petit. 

8. ('anal of Schb mm, 
9. Sclerotic coat. 

' 10. Cornea. 

11. Iris. 


Section Through the 
Right Eye. 

„ Upper eyelid. 

5. Lower eyelid. 

3. Eyelid lifting muscle. 

4. Superior rectus muscle. 

5. Inferior rectus muscle. 
Inferior oblique muscle. 

7. Frontal bone. 

8. Superior maxillary bone. 

9. Fat. 

10. Optic nerve. 

11. Crystalline lens. 

12. .-Vitreous humor. 


ea. 

er. 

>er 


tiva 

um. 


Protective and Lachrymal 
Anparatuo. 

1. Upper eyelid with its lashes, 

2. Under eyelid; skin and muscles 

removed. 

3. Lachrymal glands with theiij 

ten ducts. 

4. Semilunar fold. 

5. Caruncle, third eyelid in lower 

animals. 

6 7. Tear ducts. 

8. Tear sac. 9. Nasal duct. 



Section 

1. Optic nerve. 

2. Retinal blood vessels. 

3. Slight thickening of the retina. 

4. Nerve sheath. 

5. Sclerotic coat. 


at the Entrance of the Optic 

6. Choroid. 

7. Retina. 

a. Nerve-fiber layer. 

b. Ganglion-cell layer. 

c. Inner-reticular layer. 


Nerve. 

d. Inner-nuclear layer. 

e. Outer-reticular layer. 

f. Outer-nucleated layer. 

g. Layer of the rods and cones. 


















OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


299 


ing. If we could picture one bom in such a condition, and 
growing up through childhood without ever having possessed 
any of these five senses, it would be impossible for him to be 
educated, to have any idea of his relations to others or even to 
know that there were others. He could know nothing, and, as 
a matter of fact, such an individual would scarcely be able to 
survive infancy. 

These organs are of special value in furthering the welfare 
of the body, especially in a protective way for preserving life. 
The sense of sight enables one to know the whereabouts or 
presence of objects so that he may avoid injury by involun¬ 
tary contact with them. The sense of hearing places him in 
communication with external objects in another way, per¬ 
haps warning him of the approach of anything from behind 
him, that is naturally out of his range of vision. The senses 
of smell and taste enable him to judge of what will be bene¬ 
ficial to him in the way of foods. The sense of touch, indicat¬ 
ing temperatures and other external conditions, likewise helps 
him to adjust himself to the requirements of his environment, 
as we have already seen. 

But important as are these organs of sense, in these re¬ 
spects, they do not have the same relation to the health and 
vitality of the body as do the other so-called vital and func¬ 
tional organs. They may be defective through some local con¬ 
dition or derangement, and yet without interfering materially 
with the general health of the body as a whole, whereas any 
such impairment of the heart, lungs, stomach, liver or kid¬ 
neys would seriously affect every other part of the body. It 
would seem from this that in our study of the means of build¬ 
ing health and increasing the vital powers of the body, the 
organs of special sense do not assume the importance of those 
considered in previous chapters, though they are naturally of 
great importance in themselves. This, however, does not ap¬ 
ply in the same wav to the skin, for this is not only the organ 
of the sense of touch, but it has the other functions of protec¬ 
tion and depuration. When the latter is interfered-with, it 
must affect the entire body detrimentally. 








View of Eyeballs from Above, Showing the Muscles and Arteries. 

1. Crossing of the optic nerve. 

2. Superior rectus muscle. 

3. Inferior rectus muscle. 

4. External rectus muscle. 

5. Internal rectus muscle. 

6. Superior oblique muscle. 

7. Inferior oblique muscle. 

8. Lachrymal glands. 

9. Eyelid in section. 

10. Eyelid from inside. 

11. Infra-orbital artery. 

12. Branch to the tear gland. 

13. Branch to the retina. 

14. Branch to the iris. 

15. Branch to the upper eyelid. 

16. Branch to the eyebrow. 

17. Branch to the cavity of the nose. 





if! sf I p N 
$!# m 


300 












































PHYSICAL C ULT URE 


301 


The Eye, or the organ of vision—which, like all the 
other special senses, is double—is situated in two conical-shaped 
bony cavities in the front part of the skull, one on either side 
of the root of the nose. The eyeball is an almost spherical¬ 
shaped mass, held in place in this cavity by three pairs of mus¬ 
cles, and the optic nerve, or nerve of sight; it is surrounded 
by loose fatty tissue and protected in front by the eyelids, 
whose lining membrane is reflected over the anterior portion 
of the eyeball. 

The lids are composed, on their outer surface, of skin, and 
on their inner surface, of mucous membrane, held loosely to¬ 
gether by connective tissue and reinforced at their edges by 
thin semilunar cartilages. At the junction of the two mem¬ 
branes is a row of stiff hairs, known as eyelashes, which pro¬ 
tect the eye, serving as a screen, from the entrance of foreign 
bodies. At this edge there appear also the openings of little 
glands which secrete an oily material to lubricate the edges 
of the lids and these hairs. A 
stoppage and inflammation of 
one of these glands is com¬ 
monly known as a stye. 

On the upper, outside cor¬ 
ner of the bony cavity con¬ 
taining the eyeball, which is 
known as the orbit, is a large 
gland known as the lachrymae, 
or tear-gland. This secretes 
tears, a slightly salty, watery 
fluid, which at all times keeps 
the anterior surface of the eye¬ 
ball moist and at times, under 
the influence of certain emo¬ 
tions, is poured forth more or 
less copiously. The main duct 
from this gland leads to the 
cavity of the nostril on the 



Cross Section Through the Upper Eyelid. 

1. Muscles cut across. 

2. Fibers of involuntary muscles in 
adipose tissue. 

3. Meibomian glands. 

4. Conjunctiva. 

5. Sweat glands. 

6. Eyelashes. 

7. Fat glands. 








Horizontal Sectional View of Structure of Eye. 

exposed* Pan ° f fiSUre Sh ° WS ° Uter tissues; lower P art of figure* shows blood-vessels 

(Detailed reproduction.) 


1. Sclerotic coat. 

2. Cornea, or second coat. 

3. Choroid coat. 

4. The iris. 

5. Retina. 

6. Anterior chamber. 

7. Posterior chamber. 

8. Pupil. 

9. Crystalline lens. 

10. Vitreous humor. 


11. Ciliary body. 

12. Canal of Petit. 

13. Optic nerve. 

14. Yellow spot. 

15. Nerve sheath. 

16. Capsule of Tenon. 

17. Conjunctiva, 

18. Capillaries of the choroid coat. 

19. External rectus muscles. 

20. Membrane of Descemet. 

21. Canal of Schlemm. 


302 








OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


303 


same side, so that in the main the waste secretion discharges 
into the nose. 

The muscles of the eye, as said before, consist of three 
pairs to each eyeball, and by acting in concert or antagonism 
cause the motions of the eye from side to side, up or down, 
and circularly on its own axis. 

The eyeball itself is spherical in form, having a portion of 
a smaller sphere engrafted on its front part. The larger 
sphere, which forips about five-sixths of the globe, is opaque, 
while the smaller, consisting of about one-sixth of the surface, 
is very transparent and is known as the cornea, or the win¬ 
dow of the eye. The cornea is the projecting anterior portion 
of the eye and is set into the other portion of the outer coat of 
the eye, much as a watch-glass is set into the case of a watch. 

In general, the eyeball consists of two parts; an envelope 
and its contents. The envelope is called the coat of the 
eye, while the contents is called the humors of the eye. The 
eye has three coats, which compose its envelope. The first, 
known as the sclerotic or hard coat, is composed of firm, white 
opaque fibrous tissue, and is the protecting coating of the eye. 
This coating covers five-sixths of the globe of the eye, being 
continuous in front with the cornea or window of the eye. It 
is thicker behind than it is in front, and is continued in the 
rear as the optic nerve, or nerve of sight. To this coat are 
attached the various muscles which move the eyeball, and over 
its anterior portion, and the front surface of the cornea, is 
found an exceedingly thin reflection of the mucous membrane 
lining of the lids. This is so thin that the whiteness of the 
sclerotic coat shows through, giving the appearance which we 
call the whites of the eye. 

Underneath this white coat we come to the second, known 
as the choroid coat. This is formed mainly of blood vessels 
which are very numerous and very small, and among which 
is a heavy deposit of purple-black coloring matter. This 
choroid or dark coat completely lines the sclerotic everywhere, 
but at the junction of the latter and the cornea it projects 
inward toward the axis of the eye, and at this point there 




304 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


is a circular opening in it, known as the pupil of the eye. This 
opening or pupil of the eye is to allow the entrance of light 
into the interior. 

Owing to the transparency of the cornea, that part of the 
choroid coat which depends upon the junction of the sclerotic 
and the cornea, and which is pierced by the pupil, can be dis¬ 
tinctly seen in every human eye. This visible portion is 
known as the iris, which means rainbow, and is so called be¬ 
cause of the various colors it exhibits in different people. The 
iris differs from the main portion of the choroid coat in this 
particular—that it contains two sets of very fine muscular 
fibers. One of these sets runs in concentric circles around the 
opening known as the pupil, while the other set runs in ra¬ 
dial lines, like spokes of a wheel, from the center of the pupil 
as a hub. When the circular fibers contract, the opening of 
the pupil is much narrowed, while on the contrary, should the 
radial fibers contract, the pupil is enlarged. By means of 
this mechanism, the amount of light allowed to enter the eye 
is increased or diminished according as the source-of light is 
less or greater in intensity. 

The third coat of the eye, the retina, or innermost coat, 

is composed almost exclu¬ 
sively of the tip ends of the 
fibers of the optic nerve spe¬ 
cialized in such manner as 
to receive not only sensa¬ 
tions of gradations of light, 
but also of color. This 
membrane is transparent, is 
much more sensitive in the 
rear portion, and disappears 
at the junction of the scler¬ 
otic and cornea in front. In 
the posterior parts where 
the nerve fibers come to¬ 
gether to form the optic 



The Retina, as in Life, Viewed Through the 
Ophthalmoscope. 

1. Entrance of the optic nerve. 

2. Yellow spot. 

3-4. Blood vessels of retina. 








Section of the Retina. 

(Very highly magnified.) 

1. Internal limiting membrane. 

2. Nerve-fiber layer. 

3. Ganglion-cell layer. 

4. Inner-reticular layer. 

5. Inner-nuclear layer. 

6. Outer-reticular layer. 

7. Outer-nuclear layer. 

8. Limiting membrane. 

9. Rods and cones. 

10. Pigment layer. 


Vol. 1—20 


305 

































306 


MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


nerve, we have what is known as the blind spot, because we 
have no specialized nerve endings there. 

Directly behind the iris we find what is known as the crys¬ 
talline lens. This is a solid body, absolutely transparent, and 
resemblng in shape the lenses in an opera glass or telescope. 
Both of its surfaces, anterior and posterior, are convex, but 
the anterior one is at all times more so than the posterior. 
This lens is held in place by processes of the choroid coat of 
the eye, and its convexity is increased or diminished by the 
muscular processes mentioned, allowing of clear vision of near 
or distant objects. 

In the space between the back of the cornea and the an¬ 
terior surface of the crystalline lens, into which space the 
iris projects, there is a thin, watery fluid known as the aque¬ 
ous humor. Should this be lost by any untoward accident it 
is immediately replaced by a new secretion of the fluid. 

Back of the crystalline lens and completely filling the bal¬ 
ance of the cavity, is what is known as the vitreous humor . 
This is a denser liquid than the aqueous and is contained in a 
very thin transparent envelope known as the hyaloid mem¬ 
brane. From the inner surface of this membrane partitions 
jut out into its interior in every direction, forming irregular, 
transparent wall cells, which contain the vitreous humor. 
Contrary to the case of the aqueous humor, should anything 
allow the loss of the vitreous, it can never be replaced, but is 
irretrievably lost and the eye is ruined. 

It is evident that the condition of the eye depends largely 
upon the condition of the general health, the quality and pur¬ 
ity of the blood, the circulation and the degree of available 
nervous energy. The eye requires a very full and perfect sup¬ 
ply of blood, and when it is deprived of this or is supplied with 
blood of defective quality, as in the case of a diseased condi¬ 
tion of the rest of the body, the signs of the disturbance are 
clearly indicated to the trained observer, or even to the cas¬ 
ual onlooker, in the appearance of the organ. It loses its 
lustre, its color changes and in other ways it gives evidence 
of the general lack of wellbeing. The eyes, furthermore, ow- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


307 


ing to the constant nature of their service, and their expos¬ 
ure to such great quantities of light (for the sensations of sight 
are the result of the chemical action of light upon the delicate 
materials of the surface of the retina, much as the photo¬ 
graphic plate is affected by light), consume a tremendous 
amount of nervous energy, and in that way are closely related 
to the general condition of the body. Excessive strain of the 
eyes sometimes causes headaches and other serious nervous 
disturbances. They are such invaluable servants that we can¬ 
not take too good care of them. 

In cases where the eyes are weak, therefore, Physculto- 
pathic methods will usually accomplish remarkable results. 
We have known innumerable cases in which those who had 
formerly been compelled to wear glasses have been able to 
discard them, because of the increased strength of the eyes fol¬ 
lowing upon the building up of general constitutional vigor 
and the increase of nervous energy. In cases where there is a 
radical mechanical defect, however, no improvement in the 
quality of the blood or the condition of the general health will 
be of avail, and it will be necessary to correct the defect as 
well as we may by mechanical means. We should say, how¬ 
ever, that even in cases of myopia we have often known a ma¬ 
terial improvement to be made by reason of the increased 
strength of the little muscles which control the focusing of the 
sight. 

The Ear —the special organ of the sense of hear¬ 
ing—is, like all the other organs of special sense, double, one 
being situated on each side of the head. Anatomically consid¬ 
ered, it consists of three parts, viz., the external, middle and 
internal ear. 

Sound being the result of vibrations of air, the mechanism 
for hearing is so constituted as to receive these vibrations, con¬ 
centrate them and transmitting them into the deeper portion 
of the skull, communicate them to the end-organs of the 
special nerve of hearing which carries them to the brain, there 
to be recognized as sound. 




308 MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 



With this understanding we can more clearly comprehend 
the different portions of the mechanism of hearing. 

The external ear consists of that portion which we see at¬ 
tached to the outer side of the head and the canal which leads 
from it inwards. The outer portion consists of the well-known 
shape attached to the surface of the head. This is composed 
of cartilage, more or less trumpet-shaped, and more or less 
convoluted and covered with skin. This apparatus is fastened 

to a bony ring on the sur¬ 
face of the skull, which is 
the outer limit of a bony 
canal, extending inward 
and forward for about 
three-quarters of an inch 
to terminate in a blank 
wall, formed by the 
drum-head. This canal is 
lined with skin continuous 
with the covering of the 
outer ear, but specialized 
by having glands in it for 
the protection of so-called 
wax. 

Around the margin of 
this opening, one finds a 
number of stiff hairs 
forming a perfect screen 
over the opening. The ob¬ 
ject of this waxy secre¬ 
tion and the hairy screen 
is the prevention of the 
entrance of insects and 
other foreign material 
into the canal. 

The trumpet-shaped 
cartilage is called the 
auricle and is for the pur- 



Tympanum, Ear Bones and the Labyrinth. 

I. Inner view of the tympanum. 

2-3-4. Hammer. 

5-6-7. Anvil. 

8. Stirrup. 

9. Vestibule of the labyrinth. 

10. Foramen rotundum. 

II. Superior semicircular canal. 

12. Horizontal semicircular canal. 

13. External semicircular canal. 

14. Cochlea. 


The Labyrinth Opened. 

1. Foramen rotundum. 

2. Scala tympani. 

3. Scala vestibuli 

4. Summit. 

5. Vestibule. 

6. Fovea hemispherica. 

7. Fovea semi-elliptica. 

8. Aqueductus vestibuli. 

9-10-11. Ampullae of the semicircular canal. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


309 


pose of collecting and di¬ 
recting the waves of 
sound into the previously 
described canal, which is 
known technically as the 
external auditory canal. 
Surrounding this auricle 
and attached to it are 
remnants or relics of 
muscles, which in the 
lower animals are freely 
used to give motions to 
this part. As an example, 
notice the motility of the 
ears of the horse. The 
middle ear consists of an 
irregular, bony chamber 
situated in the temporal 
bone, having five walls of 
bone, and one of mem¬ 
brane. This membrane, 
the drum of the ear, is 
known as the membrana 
tympani, and forms the 
inner wall of the external 
ear and the outer wall of 
the middle ear. In the 
anterior wall of the bony 
cavity is an opening from 
which a trumpet-shaped 
cartilaginous tube leads 
to the throat, the broad 
end of the trumpet be¬ 
ing in the throat. 
Through this tube the 
mucous membrane lining 
of the throat extends to 



Section Through the Cochlea. 

1. Central axis. 

2. Scala tympani. 

3. Scala vestibuli. 

4. Outer edge of thin membrane of lamina 
spiralis. 

5. Bony part of lamina spiralis. 



Section of One Turn of the Cochlea.* 

(Highly magnified, shows the organ of Corti.) 
(Detailed reproduction.) 

1. Scala tympani. 

2. Scala medius. 

3. Scala vestibuli. 

4. Bony part of the lamina spiralis. 

5. Membrane of the lamina spiralis. 

6. Reissner’s membrane. 

7. Auditory nerve. 

8. Denticulate lamina. 

9. Membrane of Corti. 

10. Spherical cells. 

11. Inner pillars of Corti. 

12. Outer pillars of Corti. 

13. Inner nerve-cells. 

14. Reticular membrane. 

15. Hair cells of Corti. 

16. Supporting-cells of Deiters. 

17. Cells of Claudius. 

18. Spiral ligament. 







310 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


and lines the middle ear. This tube is called the eustachian 
canal, and is for the same purpose as the small round hole which 
is placed in the side of a bass drum, that is, in order that the 
air pressure in both sides of the drum-head shall be equal and 
allow of proper vibration when this drum-head is struck. In 
the inner wall of this cavity are two small openings, one oval 
in shape, the other circular, and both covered with membrane. 
Thus we see that this middle ear has one communication with 
the outer air, viz., through the station canal to the throat, and 
is, therefore, filled with air. Crossing this cavity of the mid¬ 
dle ear from its outer to its inner wall is a chain of minute 
bones called ossicles, attached loosely to each other. These 
ossicles are given names according to their shape, namely, the 
hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup. The hammer is attached 
at one end to the drum-head, at its other to the anvil, while 
the anvil is attached also to the stirrup, and the stirrup to the 
membrane covering the oval hole in the inner wall. To these 
bones are attached minute muscles, which make tense or re¬ 
laxed this chain of bones, tensing or relaxing at the same time 
the drum-head. 

The internal ear, or the innermost portion of the organ, 
consists of an irregular bony cavity—divided into three parts, 
the first portion, known as the semi-circular canals, three in 
number, occupy the rearmost portion. They are three tubes, 
half-circle in shape, about one-twentieth of an inch in diam¬ 
eter, placed at right angles to each other and one end of each 
joining with one end of another in a common opening. 

The second portion of the internal ear is known as the 
cochlea, and forms the most anterior part of this cavity. It 
is somewhat similar in shape to a snail shell, and consists of a 
circular gallery, which makes two-and-one-half turns in rising 
from the base to the peak of this snail shell-like cone. In this 
cavity, we find multitudes of fine nerve fibers, the end-organs 
of the nerve of hearing. 

The third portion of the internal ear is a more or less oval¬ 
shaped cavity situated between the two spaces previously de- 




PLATE K 





The Right Nasal Cavity, After Removal o; 
the Nasal Partition. 


3. Respectively, the upper, middle, and 


The Right Ear, 

1. Conch. 

2. Lobule. 

3. Auditory canal (meatus). 

4. Tympanum. 

5. Ear bones. 

6. Labyrinth. 

7. Eustachian tube. 

































































































































































OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


313 


scribed, and connecting their cavities. This is known as the 
vestibule . 

Lining the vestibule and the semi-circular canals is a closed 
membranous sac, of identical shape with the cavities, but much 
smaller in dimensions, so that there is a space left between the 
outer cavity. Within the membranous sac is a fluid, known as 
endo-lymph, while without the sac and surrounding it is a 
similar fluid, known as peri-lympli . This latter fluid extends 
also within all the spaces of the cochlea. Running in from 
this internal ear to the cavity of the skull is a small bony tun¬ 
nel which gives passage to the auditory nerve or nerve of hear¬ 
ing, on its way from the ear to the brain. 

When waves of sound impinge upon the auricle, they are 
first concentrated and then guided into the opening of the 
external auditory canal. Passing through this tube they pass 
upon the drum-head, causing it to vibrate in unison with them. 
The vibrations of the drum-head, the latter being connected to 
the chain of ossicles, cause them to move at the same rate and 
thus communicate identical motion to the membrane cover¬ 
ing the oval hole in the inner wall of the middle ear. The 
vibrations of this membrane are communicated to the peri¬ 
lymph of the internal ear, are picked up by the nerve-end-or¬ 
gans in the cochlea, carried by the auditory nerve to the brain, 
where they are recognized as sensations of sound. The semi¬ 
circular canals are the special organs of the sense of equilib¬ 
rium or balance and are concerned in every change of posi¬ 
tion of the human body. The disturbance of these organs, 
combined with that of the sense of sight, is mainly responsible 
for seasickness. 

A local derangement of the ear, such as an injury to the 
membrana tympani, may not affect the health of the rest of 
the body. But at the same time, in case of disease of this 
part, a more perfect blood supply and a high degree of nerv¬ 
ous energy will usually assist greatly in the process of cure. 
To a large extent the derangements of the ear are caused by 
catarrhal conditions, which extend first from the nasal cav¬ 
ities into the eustachian canal, and then, embracing the ear, 




314 


MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


give rise to inflammations and other trouble. For this rea¬ 
son, therefore, Physcultopathic methods will be of very great 
service. 

Smell and Taste. —Sight and hearing are made possible 
through the remarkable structural mechanisms of their re¬ 
spective organs, but the senses of smell and taste are more 
nearly akin to the sense of touch. As I may say, they actu¬ 
ally feel the materials perceived by them, the foods directly, 
in the case of the taste, and the vaporous or dust-like emana¬ 
tions from them, in the case of the sense of smell. In this serv¬ 
ice, however, the nerves are infinitely more acute and delicate 
than those which “feel” through the skin. Through the olfac- 



Tongue Viewed from Below. 

1. Hyoid bone. 

2-3-4-5. Muscles. 

6. Submaxillary gland. 

7. Sublingual gland. 

8. Ducts of submaxillary gland. 

9. Ducts of sublingual gland. 

10. Glands at tip of tongue. 

11. Lingual artery. 

12. Hypoglossal nerves. 

13. Lingual nerves. 

14. Superior laryngeal nerves. 

15. Fraenura linguae. 







1. Great horn of hyoid bone. 

2. Epiglottis. 

3. Root of the tongue. 

4. Mucous glands. 

5. Foramen cecum. 

6. Circumvallate papillae. 

7. Filiform papillae. 

8. Fungiform papillae. 

9-, Stylo-glossus. muscle. 

10. Glosso-pharyngeal nerve. 


• v « ivjMVI 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


315 


tory nerves, when both the body and the organ itself are in 
a state of good health, we may discern the most subtle and 
refined of fragrances, and through the taste the finest shad¬ 
ings and variations of flavor. 

The upper part of the nasal cavity is the seat of the organ 
of smell. Here the terminal branches of the pair of olfactory 
nerves spread out, their end-organs being found in the tiny 
peripheral processes of the olfactory cells placed among the 
epithelial cells of the mucous membranes, these end-organs 
thereby coming into touch with the air. 

The tongue we know to be a wonderful muscular organ, 
the organ of speech, taken in connection with the larynx and the 
vocal cords, but it is also the seat of the sense of taste. The 
mucous membrane of the tongue is characterized by multi¬ 
tudes of very fine processes, called the papilla* of the tongue, 
of which there are several classifications. In some of these, 
the so-called circumvallate papillse, are the so-called gusta¬ 
tory cells, with tiny processes containing the end-organs of the 
nerves of taste. Gustatory or taste sensations are produced 
by the excitation of these bodies. In the tongue also there 
are other nerve end-organs which have to do with the sense of 
touch which is likewise located in the tongue. These are sub¬ 
stantially the same as those of the sense of touch in the skin 
of the external body, except that there are very many of them 
here and this sense is very acute in the tongue. 



Taste Goblets and Gustatory Cells. 

(Greatly magnified.) 

1. A taste bud, from the wall of a circumvallate papilla, closed. 

2. A taste bud opened, showing the gustatory cells. 

3-9. Various forms of gustatory cells. 







CHAPTER XII 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN FOOD 
SCIENCE. 

T HE most immediate and constant need in the life of man 
is the air he breathes. His next most immediate and 
frequent need is for the water he drinks. But air being 
ever present and invisible the untutored man scarcely realizes 
his need for it. Except in desert regions water is also abundant 
and requires little labor for its getting. But food, the third 
essential of life, more laborious to obtain, more pleasing to 
partake of, impresses its importance upon the mind of the un¬ 
tutored savage. 

Building Up Diet Lore. —The subject of food or diet is 
therefore inevitably one of intense interest to man in all 
stages of development. To the simpler food instincts which 
natural man shares with the animals were added the lessons of 
experience, and as man developed language, they were handed 
down from generation to generation. But to the simpler les¬ 
sons of instinct and experience were also added the results of 
man’s speculation. Superstitions and taboos originated by 
some of the brighter minds became the laws of the tribe. Beasts 
were divided as clean and unclean. Certain animals, and more 
rarely plants, becoming the objects of religious adoration, 
were forbidden as food. Other articles of diet were, as the 
result of child-like processes of reasoning, accredited with 
superior virtues. It was a natural and inevitable logic that 
convinced primitive man that he would acquire some of the 
attributes of the beast whose flesh he ate. Where peaceful 
people developed, as in India, it was equally logical that they 
should come to abhor the promiscuous eating of flesh because 
of the obviously cruel and bloodthirsty means that were re¬ 
quired in obtaining such a diet. 

It would be easy to fill a volume with the accounts of the 
origin of various unscientific notions regarding food and diet. 
But such ideas do not interest us today except from the con¬ 
sideration that our own modern and supposedly scientific 
216 


OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


317 


ideas of food are closely interwoven with the inherited folklore 
of previous ages of ignorance and superstition. On the con¬ 
trary, we will err if we insist on throwing away all this accumu¬ 
lated though inaccurate wisdom of the past, whether that wis¬ 
dom be inherited in the form of instincts or be handed down 
by word of mouth from past generations. The science of 
dietetics is not yet a complete or accurate science, and any 
efforts to prescribe a dietetic regimen wholly and directly from 
scientific theory would be hardly more likely to bring health 
and efficiency than would be the blind and ignorant following 
of instinct and inherited notions. It is only by the cultivation 
of natural instincts and by the liberal rather than dogmatic 
interpretation of popular notions regarding food and diet that 
we can establish a sound basis for the utilization of the learning 
of modern science. 

When the subject is approached in this manner we will find 
that modern science has many practical lessons for the student 
of dietetics, and that the careless food habits approved by 
custom can be decidedly bettered by those who seriously seek 
for health and efficiency. 

But the subject of food science is complex. When a man 
discovers a new fact or set of facts he is prone to become so 
enthusiastic over his newly found knowledge that he elevates 
it and gives it undue prominence. This is the origin of fads. 
The word “fad” is also used by the intellectually lazy as a 
term of reproach for all those who seek seriously after better 
ways of living. The health faddist or crank, so called, is the 
man who gives more attention to the subject of health than 
does his indolent and careless neighbor. Yet where there is 
one man who becomes so obsessed with ideas concerning his 
health that he neglects all other interests in living, there are 
a thousand who so neglect the subject of health as to make 
miserable their own lives and the lives of those upon whom 
they inflict themselves. The term “food faddist” or “diet 
crank” is likewise applied to any man who gives serious atten¬ 
tion to this most important phase of the broader subject of 
health. But no man really deserves this term of reproach 




318 


MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


nor has cause to be ashamed of its application, unless, through 
his interest in this one subject, he neglects other and equally 
important phases of healthful living. 

Within the narrower field of food and dietetics we may 
also have the faddist who seizes upon a single phase or aspect 
of the subject, which does not reveal the whole truth. In this 
narrow sense the food faddist is in danger of missing the true 
goal of health, efficiency and happiness, not so much by error 
in what he believes or practices, but by failure to consider the 
subject in its entirety and hence apply to himself a well 
balanced and complete knowledge. 

If with these general considerations in mind we review 
the comparatively recent developments of food science, we will 
find a series of ideas developed by successive stages of scientific 
progress, and in each of these limited viewpoints we will find 
some important truths which deserve consideration, as they 
form a basis for a complete understanding of the subject and 
make it possible for us to adopt a practical regimen of diet. 

Vegetarianism is a very ancient dietetic cult and has per¬ 
haps attracted more attention in the history of the world than 
any other idea regarding food. Vegetarianism was originally 
founded on sentimental or emotional grounds, and, before the 
days of modern food chemistry, the arguments for it were de¬ 
rived wholly from the humane reaction against the killing of 
animals for food. The earliest applications of modern science 
to dietetic problems were arguments pro and con on the sub¬ 
ject of vegetarianism. Word battles were waged by analogies 
from the feeding habits of animals, and the patient strength of 
the ox, or grass-eating animal, was compared to the roaring 
fierceness of the lion. The flaw in such reasoning was that they 
did not take into account the fact that the difference in the char¬ 
acteristics of the herbivorous and carnivorous animals is due 
to the difference in the method they are compelled to use to 
secure their food, and hence there was no real proof that the 
characteristics were derived from the physiological effects of 
the food eaten. Moreover, the fact that the digestive and 
assimilative functions of various species of animals are adapted 





Copyright. Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

Harvesting rice in India, where this grain forms the staple food of the native 

population. 


319 











OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


321 


to the habitual diet make the application of such reasoning still 
more faulty. 

Evolution and Vegetarianism. —With the development 
of the Darwinian theory of evolution sounder arguments for 
vegetarianism were found by tracing man’s diet back to the 
ancestral racial types akin to the ape. Apes are essentially 
fruit and nut eaters, although many species add small quanti¬ 
ties of birds’ eggs and perhaps occasional young birds to this 
diet. But the ape is not a flesh eater and no scientist has ever 
brought forth evidence to show that the remote ancestors of 
man differed in this respect from other tree-living and hand- 
possessing species. The doctrine of evolution, therefore, essen¬ 
tially endorses the arguments of the vegetarian. A rigid 
following of the diet of primitive man is hardly practical for 
the world today. But the natural diet of fruits, nuts and 
tender succulent vegetables, all taken in an uncooked state, is 
far nearer the ideal for human nutrition than is the conven¬ 
tional bill-of-fare of the modern civilized household. For this 
statement there is ample scientific justification. It is quite 
well established that changes in the inherited physiological 
functions occur very slowly with the evolution of the race, and 
that we are born today with essentially the same digestive 
powers that were slowly developed through long ages of our 
evolutionary past. If we, therefore, depart in our present 
lives too far from the eating habits of our ancestors we must 
pay the penalty by the shortening of our lives and the increase 
of our sufferings. The fundamental truth of this view will be 
obvious if we stop to consider what would happen to the man 
who would attempt to live upon the diet of a vulture or a goat. 

But in all other phases of living modern man has found 
ways to improve upon the habits of his primitive ancestors, 
and why then may he not likewise be able to improve upon 
the diet of his primitive ancestors? The question brings out 
the other side of the argument. To get the whole truth and 
reach some conclusion, we must therefore realize that while 
the nut and fruit diet is the natural diet of man, and appeals 
to our fundamental instincts as being the ideal diet, yet we are 




322 


MACF AD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


justified in modifying this diet by accepting such changes as 
civilization has brought, provided these changes are in harmony 
with the general physiological laws of the human organism. 

A careful study of the natural diet of man will therefore 
result in the discovery of certain general principles which we 
will do well to respect. But it does not necessarily follow that 
all the recently attained habits of civilized man are harmful, 
or that we may not discover further means, even though they 
seem quite artificial, to improve our eating habits. 

Moreover, though man’s natural primitive diet be con¬ 
sidered as perfectly adapted to his primitive condition, it does 
not follow that the same diet would be exactly suited to men 
today. Though our inherited physiological functions may be 
the same, our habits of living in other matters than the diet 
are not the same, and our environment and habits in matters 
of climate, housing and clothing, work and play, will complicate 
the problem and make some change in the application, to the 
various conditions of modern life, of the lessons we may learn 
from our study of the food habits of primitive man. 

The vegetarian and all those who search for the natural diet 
of man draw their arguments from science only in its most 
general aspects. The distinctive contribution of modern science 
to the food problem began something over a half century ago 
with the development of organic chemistry and the chemical 
analysis of foods. 

There are more than eighty chemical elements in existence, 
some fifteen of these are found in human food and in the human 
body. Of these fifteen elements only four are present in the 
body and in foods in any considerable quantity. These are 
oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen. From the air we 
secure oxygen in an uncombined form, from water we secure 
oxygen and hydrogen in a simple combination, but food sub¬ 
stances contain these two elements combined with carbon, and 
sometimes with nitrogen also, in various complex and almost 
innumerable compounds. 

Just as a chemical element is the simplest form to which 
the matter can be reduced in the laboratory, so a definite chem- 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


323 


ical compound is the simplest form in which matter has constant 
chemical properties. Oxygen or carbon can never be changed 
into anything else. They are elements or fundamental sub¬ 
stances. Water or cane sugar are chemical compounds always 
containing exactly the same proportions of the elements that 
form them, and always having the same properties. But the 
greater majority of food substances are neither elements nor 
simple chemical compounds, but are very complex mixtures 
of many chemical compounds. Even as simple and apparently 
constant a substance as pure olive oil or the white of egg is 
made of many chemical compounds intimately mixed. 

The purpose of science is to reduce numerous seemingly 
confusing facts to a simpler system. Therefore, the early food 
chemists divided food substances into five general groups, car¬ 
bohydrates, fats, proteins, “ash” or minerals, and water. The 
chemists also worked out methods of determining the heat or 
energy value that foods yield on oxidization, and this was ex¬ 
pressed in the physicist’s heat unit known as the calorie. This 
division of food substances into general chemical groups and 
the reckoning of its caloric content does not tell the whole story 
of food chemistry, to say nothing of the even more complex 
story of physiological and biological chemistry. But by finding 
group names, or pigeonholes in which to pocket confusing 
facts, science made a distinct advance and there was speedily 
developed a school or system of food chemistry. This scien¬ 
tifically conventional school of food chemistry achieved a 
special prominence in the United States through the extensive 
publications of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. It is 
“government bulletin” food chemistry and was considered as 
the truth, and the whole truth, but one short generation ago. 

We have not today disproved the facts discovered by the 
early food chemists, but we have discredited much of the sup¬ 
posedly practical teachings of that school, not by showing 
disproof of that which they had learned, but by discovering 
much further knowledge which revealed that the earliest efforts 
at practical application of chemical knowledge were one-sided 
and incomplete in conception of the problem. 




324 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Government Food Chemistry. —The chief practical 
effort of this government school of food chemistry was the 
idea of the balanced ration and the establishment of dietetic 
standards. Said these chemists, “If we but knew the correct 
quantity and proportions of these food groups which man 
should consume, it would be possible by analyzing his food to 
prescribe a perfect diet.” But not knowing the amounts or 
proportions of food elements that man should partake, and 
having no way in a chemical laboratory to find out, the chemists 
hit upon the rather stupid plan of determining dietetic stand¬ 
ards by analyzing the diets of many individuals and striking 
an average. It would scarcely have been more absurd had 
moralists by stealthy research determined that a Wall Street 
broker had stolen a million and his bookkeeper ten thousand, 
and an East Side sweated slave a loaf of bread and a pair of 
shoes. Averaging the stealing of mankind in general it might 
have been found that the total stealing of the human race 
would average $1,000 per capita. So with our Sunday schools 
conducted on a basis of a standard so derived, the child would 
be dutifully instructed in the necessity of maintaining the 
average thieving of the race! The analogy is a little far 
fetched, but it will serve to show the absurdity of attempting 
to set up a perfect standard by averaging the imperfect habits 
of men. Yet this is just what the food chemists of a genera¬ 
tion ago did, and the results were generally* accepted in good 
faith and taught in our schools. 

The American dietetic standards so determined were ex¬ 
cessive because Americans were a comparatively wealthy and 
well-fed people and because the prolific animal industries of 
our grazing lands led to an extensive production and consump¬ 
tion of meat. Many critics, and especially the vegetarians, 
pointed out that such American dietary standards, supposedly 
essential to health and strength, prescribed an excessive food 
quantity and particularly an excess of protein, largely derived 
from meat. If these American standards of diet were correct, 
argued the critics, then the eating habits of many other races, 
notably the Japanese, could not support life. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


325 


In passing we should note the development of another 
school of thought regarding food, and this is the teachings of 
the ordinary cook book. The early cook books made no pre¬ 
tensions of a scientific sort, but merely sought to give the 
methods of preparing dishes that had found favor with the taste 
and had become incorporated in the eating habits of the race. 
With the establishment of cooking courses in our schools and 
colleges, these old-fashioned cook books were rewritten by col¬ 
lege graduates and the recipes of our grandmothers interpreted 
and expounded in the light of the “balanced ration’’and “dietary 
standards.” With this combination we had another viewpoint 
on foods, but in neither of these schools of thought was any 
serious attention given to the matter of health and efficiency 
except the general notion that there was a standard diet of es¬ 
tablished quantities and proportions which should be consumed, 
and that good cooking was essential to good health. 

Vegetarians and the followers of the idea of natural food 
argued against these orthodox teachings and argued largely 
in vain, as science seemed to be on the side of those whose 
main philosophy was that every man should follow the average 
habits of his parents and neighbors. Among other things the 
critics of this orthodoxy maintained that the American habit¬ 
ually ate too much, particularly that’he ate too much meat, 
and lastly that cooking, and especially complex cooking, was 
not always beneficial but often destroyed the true properties 
of natural foods. 

Within the last ten or fifteen years food science has de¬ 
veloped very rapidly, and many discoveries have been made 
that have shown how insufficient, if not actually erroneous, 
were the first attempted applications of the limited knowledge 
of food chemistry. Fletcher, Chittenden and Hinhede demon¬ 
strated by human experimentation upon themselves and upon 
athletes and soldiers that the old dietary standards calling for 
relatively large amounts of protein were ill-founded, and 
proved that superior human efficiency could be attained by very 
greatly diminishing the amount of protein, particularly the 
meat protein, ordinarily consumed. 

Vol. 1—21 





326 


MACF AD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Out of the remarkable work of Horace Fletcher also came 
another series of interesting developments in relation to the 
importance of appetite, mastication, and the tasting of foods. 
Pavlov, working along similar lines but experimenting on 
animals, developed a new branch of science which we might 
call the psychology of digestion. These revolutionary lines of 
thought brought out many new findings and greatly broadened 
the field of food science. 

About 1906 occurred a great popular awakening in the 
general interest in food that had to do, not primarily with 
dietetics, but with the problem of food purity and commercial 
honesty in the manufacture and sale of foods. Dr. Har¬ 
vey W. Wiley was largely responsible for this important 
development of interest. The increase in the complexities of 
the processes of the manufacture of prepared foods had in¬ 
troduced many evils of adulteration and substitution which 
were offensive both to sentiment and to honesty, to say nothing 
of the harmfulness to health. For the period of some six or 
eight years previous to the European war this question of food 
purity was the dominant element of interest in the food prob¬ 
lem for the average individual, though it was certainly only 
one of many important phases of the whole problem. 

Health and Natural Diet. —Just prior to the beginning 
of the European War the scientists stumbled upon another 
discovery, which, like much of the recent work in food science, 
had been anticipated and forecast by the physical culture or 
natural school of dietetics. Those who had been interested in 
food, primarily from the standpoint of their observed effects 
upon health, had long realized that there were food factors 
seemingly of vast importance which were in no sense measured 
or appreciated by the conventional school of food chemistry 
that dealt only with carbohydrates, protein, fats and calories. 

Natural diets, that is, those containing large proportions 
of vegetables, fruits, nuts and milk and eggs, and particularly 
of uncooked salad vegetables, had been repeatedly shown to 
secure results in health, growth and vitality building which 
the conventional food chemists could not explain but tried to 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


327 


ignore. A faith had been gradually built up that these un¬ 
explained benefits of the natural diet were due to the impor¬ 
tance of natural salts or mineral elements. Certain ailments 
now known as deficiency diseases had been definitely ascribed 
to diets of artificial or denatured foods, scurvy, beri-beri, and 
pellagra being among the number. By experiments on animals 
it was found that similar ailments could be artificially induced 
by diets which contained ample quantities of protein, carbo¬ 
hydrates and fats, and also mineral salts , and these very diseases 
could'be cured by the addition of natural foods, particularly 
dairy products, the outer portions of grains and green vege¬ 
tables. 

The general term vitamines was applied to these chemically 
unknown elements, the importance of which could be demon* 
strated by experiment upon living creatures, though they were 
not detectable by chemical analysis. In this manner a new 
phase of the dietetic problem was unearthed and scientists were 
forced to concede the general validity of many of the conten¬ 
tions of the disciples of natural diet at which they had formerly 
scoffed. 

A last phase of interest in the food problem was developed 
as the direct result of the world famine caused by the war. 
The high cost of foods, the necessity of maintaining the armies 
in Europe and of provisioning war devastated regions made it 
essential for us to give hitherto unparalleled attention to the 
subject of food economy and to our habits of extravagance and 
waste, and to strive to secure the maximum of human efficiency 
with the least possible expenditure for foods. As a result the 
civilized world became universally and seriously interested in 
food problems on a scale and with an intelligence quite un¬ 
paralleled in the history of civilization. 

With this brief sketch of the origin of the accumulated 
and seemingly confusing theories, leading to our present knowl¬ 
edge about food, with this history of the succession of the 
somewhat one-sided, overlapping and intermingling theories 
we may now consider the food problem as a whole. Many 
viewpoints and theories that for a time were considered all 




328 MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


important may now be assigned to their proper place and the 
essential truth winnowed from the erroneous and biased chaff 
of earlier and ill-proportioned theories. Unquestionably we 
have much yet to learn regarding food and dietetics, but it is 
equally certain that wonderful progress has been made and that 
food science now offers to the serious student of health a far 
more certain foundation and a more definite basis for prac¬ 
tice than has hitherto been possible. 

The dietetic teachings of the physical culture school of 
health have been modified, enlarged and explained by recent 
scientific progress, but in their essentials they have been estab¬ 
lished more firmly than ever by modern scientific research. 
The strictly scientific viewpoint is usually a narrow one because 
of the tendency of the specialist to over-emphasize the latest 
laboratory discoveries and to overlook deeper principles estab¬ 
lished on more direct and more general human observation. 

At the beginning of the twentieth century the natural 
school of dietetics espoused by physical culture, and the scien¬ 
tific school backed by the government food chemists, seemed 
to be largely contradictory. Today there is a much greater 
degree of harmony between these two schools, both in theory 
and in practice, due to the fact that the scientists have reached 
out from the chemical laboratory into the field of direct obser¬ 
vation, noting effects of foods on human health and including 
in its research direct experimentation upon men and animals, 
and considering the questions of appetite, flavor, the manner 
and frequency of eating, and other phases essential to the 
complete consideration of the important problem of human 
dietetics. 




CHAPTER XIII 


ARGUMENTS FOR A NATURAL DIET. 

H ISTORIANS say there is a distinct relationship be¬ 
tween the food of nations and their stability; that on 
simplicity and frugality in diet national vigor and 
power depend, and when nations yield to luxurious and in¬ 
temperate habits of eating and drinking they surely fall. Gib¬ 
bon, in his “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” gives 
most graphic pictures of the dietetic extravagances of the 
Romans which led to their overthrow. Canon Farrar has 
given similar vivid pictures of the causes that led to the de¬ 
moralization of the ancient Grecians. The book of the Prophet 
Daniel clearly indicates the same source of enervation and 
loss of power in the people of the great city of Babylon, and 
all history might be cited to contribute its evidence that no 
nation has preserved its vigor unless its people have lived 
simply, frugally and temperately. 

Advantages of Frugal Eating. —When it comes to a 
consideration of the physical strength and endurance of nations, 
the evidence of history is strongly in favor of non-meat-eating 
peoples. The world had a wonderful exhibition of this in the 
Russo-Japanese war. That the tiny nation, which for so 
many centuries had refused contact with the outside world, 
could in a few decades so advance itself in the use of the most 
modern methods and weapons of warfare came as a revelation 
to the rest of mankind. In mental power, in grasp of condi¬ 
tions and circumstances, in ability to discipline and be dis¬ 
ciplined, as well as in courage and physical strength, the 
Japanese proved themselves on an equality with the most 
advanced races of the earth. Every writer on the question 
agreed that it was to the perfect physical condition of the whole 
Japanese army, officers and soldiers alike, that their wonderful 
victories were to be attributed, and that it was through the 
simplicity, frugality and temperance of their diet, largely of 

329 


330 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


cereals, such as rice, and fish, that their physical vigor and 
health were attained. 

Four things stood out very forcefully during this struggle 
in regard to the Japanese army: 1. The high average of 
physical strength and health maintained by the soldiers. 2. 
Their remarkable freedom from every kind of epidemic. 3. 
Their wonderful endurance in face of the greatest hardships, 
such as long marches, exposure to the elements, shortness of 
food, etc. 4. The remarkable rapidity with which bullet and 
other wounds were healed, thus showing a most perfect condi¬ 
tion of the physical system. 

As yet the American race is in its youth, possessing all the 
vigor and energy of a young nation. But if it would preserve 
these qualities it must not be prodigal of them as the older 
races have been. It must live temperately, frugally and sanely. 
Like causes ever produce like effects. If we live the life of 
luxury, indulgence, sensuality and effeminacy of the later 
Greeks, Romans and Egyptians, we, too, like them, will de¬ 
cline, and a more frugal, vigorous and simple race will take 
our place. 



Moderation in diet and robust health go hand in hand. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


331 


Food and Morals. —Now, the law that applies to nations 
must apply also to the persons that compose those nations. 
Hence if a man would preserve his vigor, health and power he 
must be frugal, simple and temperate. And with this beneficial 
effect on his physical nature is combined an uplifting of his 
moral nature. The vegetarians and those who live upon 
natural foods have many examples to enforce their claim that 
their diet leads to far greater command over the lower or more 
animal instincts of man’s nature, and that, all things else 
being equal, the same person living on the vegetarian, as op¬ 
posed to the meat diet, will give his moral nature far better 
opportunity for development. The Roman Catholic Church, 
with centuries of experience behind it, has confirmed this claim 
by its decrees and recommendations in regard to fasting, and 
all psychologists agree that a term of fasting now and again is 
bound to have a considerable influence upon the moral nature 
of the fasters, in that they will learn self-denial and a certain 
measure of self-control induced by the cooling of the blood that 
invariably follows even a short period of abstinence from food. 

From another standpoint, diet has a direct effect upon 
morals. Indigestion, in its manifold forms, provokes ill-tem¬ 
per and irritability, and even leads at times to acts of passion. 
Gross deeds of cruelty and murder have been due primarily 
to the indigestion of the perpetrator. A bad stomach may be 
morally as well as physically the cause of a bad heart. Many 
men and women are accused of being morose and ill-tempered 
when they are merely dyspeptic. Carlyle’s pessimism was 
nothing but the physical and mental depression that came 
from chronic indigestion. A learned physician of California 
has written an elaborate monograph, in which he shows conclu¬ 
sively that the major part of the wars of Europe for centuries 
can be directly traced to diseases of the stomach and intestines 
in the monarchs, prime ministers and statesmen responsible 
for the conduct of the affairs of the different nations. 

It is, therefore, self-evident that, if the diet of any person 
claiming to be a moral being is found to produce such in¬ 
jurious effects as, first to lower his moral resistance; second, 




332 MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


to increase his liability to fall into temptation; third, to ren¬ 
der self-control less easy; fourth, to develop an actual fret¬ 
fulness, irritability and readiness to fall into passion, he should 
make it his moral duty to change his diet as soon as a better 
one is pointed out to him. 

This is best found in a vegetarian, or a very low meat diet. 
Avoid all condiments and sauces—even salt as much as pos¬ 
sible, for its excessive use provokes thirst, thereby leading to 
a craving for intoxicants, and destroys the normal taste for 
foods, causing one to rely upon highly seasoned sensuality- 
provoking foods instead of natural and nerve-soothing ones. 
Let the reader who is still unconvinced of the influence diet 
has upon the moral nature go to the “Tenderloin” region of 
one of our great cities. (How significant that term!) Let him 
enter one of the “lobster palaces.” He will observe the so- 
called men and women “about town” eating rich, stimulating 
foods at midnight when a normal system craves rest. Night is 
turned into day. It is only at the approach of twilight that 
such individuals really begin their day. They are always look¬ 
ing for excitement; for something to steady the nerves, and the 
very happiness that they are all searching for in most cases has 
long ago eluded their grasp through their inability to recog¬ 
nize it. These poor—though financially rich—victims of per¬ 
version are really to be pitied. They are pursued by an eternal 
dissatisfaction, by a continuous seething, scorching discontent, 
always wanting to do something, anything, to drown or benumb 
the terrible unrest that is continually tormenting them. They 
are not their real selves; they are in the power of their lower 
natures. In them you see the results of abnormal food prod¬ 
ucts, and if the fire of lust gets into blood already heated to 
an abnormal degree by an animal diet, who is to blame? Every 
particle of animal food is inclined to stimulate bestial char¬ 
acteristics, and stimulation, as is well known, ultimately means 
destruction to the power that it stimulates. The madness that 
often comes with lust is a product of an animal diet. Many 
degrees more of strength of character are required for self- 
control when one’s diet is of this nature. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


333 


Fruit-and-Nut Diet. —Fruits and nuts combined with 
raw eggs furnished the food of the alalus , the anthropoid 
progenitor of man who swung himself through the treetops 
of the primeval forest in search of sustenance, and to him the 
organs of mastication and digestion which we have inherited 
were adapted by natural selection. They constitute, therefore, 
the natural food of human kind. 

This natural diet is often styled by objectors to it as “raw 
food,” a term which is suggestive of imperfection, and there¬ 
fore unjust. A bunch of dark red flaming Tokay grapes, 
or exquisite, green Verdels or Muscats, or delicately tinted 
Rose of Perus, or hothouse grown black Hamburgs, or delicate, 
white, elongated Cornichons can scarcely be called “raw” 
food. They are as truly cooked as if they had passed through 
the hands of the world’s greatest chef, even though man, by a 
second process, may add to the cooking, but the great source 
of light and heat has already produced a perfect dish. If we 
had words that would distinguish between things that are 
cooked by Nature and those that are artificially cooked by 
man, our vocabulary would be enriched thereby. Where fruits, 
vegetables and nuts are completely ripened by the sun they 
are perfectly cooked—not raw—and the latter term is there¬ 
fore inadequate and incorrect. 

A Biblical writer truthfully affirmed that “man has found 
out many inventions.” No sane person will question that many 
of these are beneficial to humanity, but there are those who 
affirm that artificial cooking of food has been an invention 
that we might well have dispensed with. They contend that 
the fruits, nuts and vegetables brought to a state of maturity 
by the processes of Nature are in a finished, perfect and ready 
condition for man’s use. As one writer says: “They are per¬ 
fect, they are not raw, they are done; and when they are cooked 
they are undone.” Another writer on this subject says: “It 
must be understood that cooking food is not natural, because 
its chemical constitution is changed by the destructive power 
applied by the high temperature. The sun energy is dissipated. 
The volatile essences are exploded. The tonic elements (or- 




334 


MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ganic salts) have been freed, mineralized and neutralized. The 
proteids are coagulated. The starches are rendered so that 
they enter the circulation undigested. The atomic arrange¬ 
ment of sugar is rendered uncongenial. The oils are fused. 
Therefore, cooked food readily ferments and decays in the 
alimentary canal; besides, its consistency does not give the 
proper exercise to the organs of comminution, digestion and 
absorption; and it has a tendency to puzzle, confuse, and per- 
jvert the alimentary functions—thus laying the foundations 
of disease.” 

The claim is made, and it seems to be sustained, that “man’s 
natural foods are the fruits, the succulent herbs and roots, the 
nuts, and cereals which, in their natural (unfired) form appeal 
to his unperverted sense of alimentation. Nature has sup¬ 
plied ample variety for each season to delight the senses and 
prevent monotony.” That man can live well on naturally- 
cooked foods and build up on them a body full of vitality, vim, 
strength, endurance and vigor, there can be no question. For 
several years uncooked foods have had a growing number of 
enthusiastic adherents, who maintain health and efficiency of 
the highest degree at a minimum of cost and domestic labor. 

The contention is made, and not without reason, that few 
critics of this system have ever given it a fair and honest test. 
Its advocates claim, with justice, that a test of natural foods 
combined with artificial foods is no test at all, for the one class 
of foods nullifies the beneficial effects of the other. There is 
but one way to test natural foods and that is to eat them and 
them alone for a sufficiently long period to appreciate thor¬ 
oughly the result. George Wharton James, in his explora¬ 
tions of the Colorado desert, gave natural foods a thorough 
test. “Not,” as he says, “because of any theoretical objections 
to artificially cooked foods, but simply to relieve myself of the 
arduous and difficult task, and the trouble and bother conse¬ 
quent upon taking foods that had to be cooked, together with 
the necessary utensils for cooking them. Where weight and 
space are important objects, owing to the somewhat danger¬ 
ous character of explorations in an almost trackless desert; 






OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


335 


where water, both for man and beast, is exceedingly scarce, 
it was desirable to reduce our outfit as much as possible; I had 
no fear whatever of the results, as so many people seem to 
have, of living upon an exclusively natural diet. My com¬ 
panion and I lived principally on cracked wheat, rolled oats 
and some other cereal. This we mixed up on our plates, some¬ 
times putting a trifle of sugar over it; we ate with this almonds, 
walnuts, pignolas and pecan nuts, together with figs, raisins 
and dates. We generally traveled about thirty miles a day, 
with one pack-animal, and one saddle-animal for the two of us. 
One would be in the saddle, and the other walking or running. 
We were hunting for lizards, snakes, tarantulas, Gila mon¬ 
sters and other desert fauna—many of which we had to chase 
down, often running one, two* and three miles at a stretch to 
do so—hence it is fair to assume that we each went on foot 
about thirty miles, as well as rode about fifteen miles each 
day. This was arduous work, yet both of us sustained our 
strength and vigor; I am as fully satisfied of the nutritive and 
assimilative qualities of natural foods as I am of any I have 
ever eaten. Yet I did occasionally hanker for a greater variety 
than we took along, though, occasionally we were able to take 
a fair supply of apples, oranges, limes and grape-fruit.” 

Those who live exclusively upon natural foods claim that 
the unchanged flavors of such foods, the moment they are 
placed in the mouth, at once stimulate the delicate and unper¬ 
verted taste-buds, and excite the secretions of those fluids that 
are best adapted for their proper assimilation. When the food 
is cooked these flavors are so changed that in time the taste- 
buds become perverted and the proper secretions are not always 
supplied. 

Health and Vegetarianism. —Many will tell you that 
flesh meat is a food absolutely essential to nourish the body; 
that you cannot live without meat. It is true that if you are 
accustomed to eating meat, and suddenly change your dietetic 
regime, an ordinary meatless meal would not satisfy you, be¬ 
cause of the need of this stimulant. You miss it just as the 
drug fiend misses his capsules, yet if you continue to avoid 




336 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


meat this feeling of dissatisfaction after a meatless meal will 
soon disappear. 

Then, too, many will point to vegetarians who look frail, 
or pale, or delicate, but such examples of this regime are in 
nearly all cases following an impoverished diet. They are 
avoiding meat, but they have not adopted the foods that are 
necessary to take its place, and frequently you will find such 
vegetarians consuming large quantities of white bread and 
other unnourishing, indigestible “stuff.” 

There is a widespread misconception of the nature and 
scope of the so-called “vegetarian” diet, and a consequent 
belief in the inconsistency of its advocates when they add such 
animal products as eggs, butter, cheese and milk to their 
dietary. The term does not mean that a “vegetarian” must 
eschew all foods except those of a vegetable nature, any more 
than the term “librarian” implies a custodian of books ( libri) 
alone, to the exclusion of all other literary treasures, such as 
letters, prints of drawings, etc. The use of such a word is 
justified if it describes the characteristic element in it, and if 
the minor elements are not inconsistent with the principle 
exemplified in the main one. Now, the principle of vegeta¬ 
rianism is that animals should not be killed for food. The use 
of eggs and milk and its products does not impair this prin¬ 
ciple, but rather conserves it, leading to the preservation and 
increase of animal life through calling on it for food supply. 
The theory upon which vegetarianism is founded is that in 
the original food, as provided by Nature, there is stored a 
certain amount of material that can be converted either directly 
into food proper, such as milk and the albumen of eggs, or 
into muscular energy. When converted into energy a certain 
proportion of the energy is used up. Therefore, when the 
animal is slain, those who eat its flesh secure only the unex¬ 
pended balance of the original amount of energy. 

Be this as it may, it has been found that a purer quality 
of blood is made from a vegetarian than from a meat diet. 
There seem to be various elements in flesh foods which de¬ 
teriorate the blood and increase depuration. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


337 


Again, there is less danger from over-eating when one 
lives on a vegetable diet than when eating meat. There seems 
to be some quality in the meat itself of an immediately stimu¬ 
lating character, and the stimulation is not always healthful. 
Few men need to be stimulated to eat any more than they do 
eat. In fact, it would be a good thing if the majority of 
mankind could be induced to eat very much less than they do. 

The charge is often made that vegetarians are not so ag¬ 
gressively robust and so forcefully vigorous as meat-eaters. 
This may be largely true, but we must remember that the 
diet question rarely receives consideration until it is forced 
upon one because of poor health; therefore vegetarians would 
hardly represent the most robust class. I freely admit that 
meat-eaters among both animals and men are more aggressive 
than those which live on a vegetarian diet, yet aggressiveness 
is not always a desirable quality. The lion and tiger and 
other carnivorous animals are strong and vigorous, but they 
are also bloodthirsty and cruel. The elephant, the fruit and 
nut eating bear, the grass and grain eating horse and ox 
are all powerful and strong, and if it comes to a question of 
endurance would undoubtedly surpass the carnivorous lion 
and tiger, but they are less aggressive than the carnivora, and 
possess none of the bloodthirsty and cruel characteristics of 
the latter. 

The comparison holds good in the case of meat-eating and 
vegetable-eating races of men. The meat-eaters possess nerv¬ 
ous activity and, as a result, are aggressive and combative. 
The beef-eating Englishmen have penetrated to all parts of 
the world, subjugating and colonizing wherever they have 
gone. On the other hand, the non-meat-eating Hindus, while 
they have attained to a high degree of intellectuality, have 
been unable to withstand the fierce and vigorous onslaughts of 
the meat-eating Britishers, and therefore have been subjugated 
and ruled by the latter for many years. 

While, therefore, the non-meat-eaters may seem not to 
possess a bold, vigorous aggressiveness, this by no means im¬ 
plies that they lack in the slightest degree courage, strength, 




338 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


energy, vigor and progressiveness. Indeed, in the long run, it 
will be found that they possess these qualities more surely and 
constantly than their meat-eating brothers. Their persistence 
will be more steady, their endurance greater, their energy more 
under control, and at the same time they will be less inclined 
to “ride rough-shod” over those who stand in their way. 

That the vegetarian possesses as much strength as the meat- 
eater has been proved in so many hundreds of thousands of 
cases, that it is no longer a question worthy of a moment’s 
discussion. Many of the strongest men the world has ever 
known have been almost life-long vegetarians. And there are 
too many men in all the various walks of life who never eat 
meat, to place this once agitated question aside forever. 

Meat-Eaters j Handicap. —Experience has also demon¬ 
strated the following facts in regard to the relative merits 
of the two diets. Meat-eaters are more often addicted to the 
use of alcohol than vegetarians; they are more apt to be sensual 
and gross in their lives; they are more easily subject to disease; 
they are harder to cure when diseased, and in order to hasten 
their recovery, the first and wisest step is to put them on a 
vegetarian diet. On the other hand, the vegetarian, while per¬ 
haps less combatively aggressive than his meat-eating brother, 
is physically his equal and sometimes his superior, has a clearer 
mentality, is less liable to the temptations of the flesh, and 
need not always be worrying lest he contract this, that or 
the other disease. 

There have been many conclusive demonstrations of the 
superiority of the vegetarian over the meat-eating diet. In 
1902, in a race of 125 miles between Dresden and Berlin there 
were thirty-two entries, twelve being meat-eaters and twenty 
vegetarians. The race was won by a vegetarian nearly eight 
hours in advance of his best meat-eating competitor. Out of 
the twelve meat-eaters, only three succeeded in finishing the 
race within the prescribed time of forty-five hours, though 
there were ten out of the twenty vegetarians who accomplished 
the feat. The winner in this race subsisted almost entirely on 
an uncooked diet of fruits and nuts and he distanced his nearest 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


339 


competitor by over two hours. He was a vegetarian twenty - 
eight years of age and had been a vegetarian for nine years, 
taking but two meals a day. At the age of seventeen he was 
a weak and sickly-looking boy, but regular gymnastics, com¬ 
bined with a rational vegetarian diet, worked wonders with 
him. For two years he had even discarded from his bill of 
fare animal products such as eggs, butter, cheese and milk. He 
asserted that pulses, which are generally taken as a substitute 
for meat, require too large an amount of vital force for di¬ 
gestion and are therefore not well adapted for a daily food, 
especially for those who depend for their livelihood on indoor 
work. His bill of fare consisted of fresh and dried fruits, fruit- 
juices, whole-wheat bread, also other well prepared cereals, 
and nuts (peanuts, filberts and almonds, generally taken in 
the form of butter), four ounces of the latter being enough for 
the daily needs of the body. Wine, beer, brandy, coffee, tea, 
cocoa and similar stimulants were of course rigidly excluded. 

During a long march at a high rate of speed, against the 
usual habit of two or three daily meals, every two or three 
hours, he took some light nourishment, such as fruit juice or 
sweet fruits. He especially commended California dried fruits 
such as figs, peaches, prunes, pears or apricots, which had 
been soaked in water just long enough to bring them back 
to their original volume. His scientific reason for the use of 
sweet fruits and juices for this purpose was as follows: Experi¬ 
ments have amply furnished the proof that the main function 
of fruit sugar, as found in the blood, is the production of heat 
and energy. By ingenious devices the blood going to and 
from a muscle of a living animal may be analyzed, and it is 
thus shown that more blood traverses an active or working 
muscle, and that more sugar disappears from it than is the 
case with a muscle at rest. It has also been shown that all 
starch must be converted first into fruit sugar before it can be 
used in the system. Sweet fruits are therefore always advan¬ 
tageously substituted for starch foods, since the former do not 
burden the digestive tract and less force is required for their 
digestion. A large amount of vital force is thereby saved 





The upper photograph shows revolting conditions existing in Chicago’s great pack¬ 
ing plants, and the lower photograph shows a drove of hogs ready for the slaughter. 

340 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


341 


which can be used in the voluntary muscles, thus increasing 
endurance. 

Objections Against Meats. —The objections against 
meat-eating which are urged with more or less force by those 
who abstain from its use are as follows: 

First. It is a stimulating diet. By this is meant that it 
not only supplies nutriment, but that it contains an artificial 
and unnatural stimulant, which entirely differentiates it from 
all vegetable and fruit foods, which healthfully nourish, with¬ 
out stimulation. 

Second. It lessens endurance. The tests of vegetarian 
athletes scientifically recorded fully demonstrate the truth of 
this statement, showing that in severe physical contests those 
who abstain from flesh-eating have the greatest power. 

Third. It shortens life by hardening and rendering brittle 
the arteries and other tissues, thus preventing them from doing 
their work in a manner consistent with perfect health. 

Fourth. It is far less cleanly than a vegetarian diet, for, 
no matter how healthy the animal from whom the flesh is 
taken, it is impossible that a certain amount of the products 
of elimination should not remain in the tissues at the time it 
is eaten. 

Fifth. Even though the greatest care is exercised, it is 
impossible always to tell whether an animal is healthy or not; 
hence the constant danger that the meat-eater may expose 
himself to the partaking of disease through the flesh of the 
animals he uses for food. 

Sixth. There are certain parasitic creatures, such as 
trichinae, in pork, which are often transferred into the living 
tissues of human beings by partaking of the flesh of animals. 
Thousands of well-authenticated cases of this kind are known, 
and many deaths can be definitely attributed to this cause alone. 

Seventh. Packers in some instances are neither cleanly, 
honest nor truthful in the conducting of their business, some¬ 
times palming off upon the people meats that are unfit for 
human food, and occasionally swindling their customers by 
falsely labeling sausages, hams, potted and canned meats, etc. 

Vol. 1—22 




342 MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Eighth. The slaughter-house is a place of horrors, and 
butchers become hardened to pain and suffering. Mankind 
is not justified in taking any kind of life without potent rea¬ 
son, which reason is not found in the mere fact that we like 
meat for food. There is a growing feeling that a universal 
kinship exists between all animate creation and that one can¬ 
not violate any part of this kinship without a direct correspond¬ 
ing injury to his own spiritual nature. 

It is not our purpose to enter fully into any of these argu¬ 
ments. Those who wish to know the horrors of the packing¬ 
houses cannot do better than read Upton Sinclair’s book, 
“The Jungle,” and if there is any fear lest this is a one-sided 
and unjust presentation of the case, let him read the govern¬ 
mental reports of the investigations conducted by experts 
brought about as the result of the publication of the book. 

Even a radical advocate of meat as a food cannot excuse 
its use more than once a day, no matter what his occupation 
or how hard he has to labor. It is scarcely possible for any 
man, unless he have unusual powers of digestion and assimila¬ 
tion, and takes a large amount of exercise in the open air, to get 
rid of three meat meals a day without direct and positive injury. 

Two other strong arguments against the meat diet are 
found in the facts that it stimulates to over-eating and to 
alcoholic liquor drinking. It has been proved conclusively in 
hundreds of thousands of cases, by those who have lived at 
different periods on both diets, that the meat diet is a great in¬ 
citement to over-eating. Gluttony is a most common practice, 
and that meat-eating fosters it no well informed person can 
doubt. The further result of this is an unnatural craving 
for alcoholic stimulants. The very stimulation of a too hearty 
meat diet, the depressing effects that follow, which are mate¬ 
rially enhanced by the ptomaine poisons generated by undi¬ 
gested meats in the intestines, and which, vitiating the blood, 
send their poisons and deadening influences throughout the 
whole body, give rise to the physical state that calls for a stimu¬ 
lant. This is not a mere theory. Nine-tenths of the drunkards 
can be restored to normal condition and can get rid of their 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


343 


abnormal appetite if they will rigorously abstain from flesh as 
an article of diet. 

Nevertheless, meat has nutritive value, and, therefore, a 
place in the dietary, which, in some particular instances, cannot 
be filled by any vegetable food. 

There is one phase of this subject which I feel requires 
discussion in these pages. This is the exclusive use of meat as 
a cure for disease. I am free to confess that for years I looked 
upon this proposition not only with distrust but with scorn. 
My habitual attitude of tolerance and willingness to investigate 
did not seem to work in this case, for I was so convinced of 
the inutility of the exclusive meat diet that I thought it use¬ 
less to waste any time either in listening to the testimony of 
others or in experimenting. But at length the matter came 
to me in such a way that I could no longer ignore it, and after 
thorough investigation, followed by a great number of experi¬ 
ments with those who were suffering from certain ailments, 
I arrived at the conclusion that there were cases in which the 
exclusive meat diet would not only help, but would restore to 
health as no other regimen that I was familiar with would do. 

I do not want my friends to infer in any way that this 
conclusion has shaken my faith in the statement I have made 
again and again that a non-meat diet is ordinarily to be pre¬ 
ferred. I firmly believe that a healthy person can secure more 
and better nourishment from a diet from which meat has been 
eliminated. A vegetarian diet will give more endurance and 
just as much strength, and there is far less liability to the 
various diseases that are to a large extent caused by the ex¬ 
cessive use of meat, but there are some cases where a diseased 
stomach will be able to digest animal diet far more advanta¬ 
geously than a non-meat diet. Under such circumstances I ad¬ 
vocate the animal diet. I naturally would prefer the use of 
an exclusive milk diet first, and if this fails, then a diet of 
milk and eggs, and finally, as a last resort, the exclusive meat 
and hot water diet. Full details of the application of the 
meat diet to diseased or debilitated conditions will be found 
in Volume III, page 1768. 




344 MACFADDEN J S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Seasoning That Is BAD.-^Most condiments and spices 
are injurious stimulants. Their use violates a fundamental 
principle of material living, which is, that the natural and 
simple flavors of all foods shall be untouched and unmolested 
by outside influences. In other words, the only way to eat an 
apple properly is to eat it in its natural condition. That is 
the way to know its real flavor, to taste its special quality. 

A man or woman who lives upon food prepared by the 
ordinary cook or chef of a so-called first-class hotel may be 
called an epicure. The name, however, is a misnomer. Such 
a person has no more conception of the real flavors of foods 
than a man with bloodshot eyes can see the real delicate hues 
of a dainty flower. 

The true epicure is one whose taste is so keen, so natural, 
so unperverted, that he recognizes the most subtle flavors in 
all the foods that he eats. To such an one the sense of taste 
will always be a safeguard against impure and improper foods. 

It can be laid down as an absolute principle that any con¬ 
diment that destroys the sense of perception so that one cannot 
appreciate the natural flavor of any food is bad. Another 
principle is that those condiments that are largely irritants 
are particularly injurious and should be avoided. 

Tested by either of these standards, black-pepper, red- 
pepper and mustard must unhesitatingly be condemned. They 
have no food value, they are irritants, and they destroy or con¬ 
ceal the taste of the foods that are eaten with them. They 
have but one object and purpose and that is to arouse and 
stimulate an overworked and perverted appetite so that it 
shall at least put on a semblance of enjoyment. Food that 
cannot be eaten without such stimulants had better never be 
eaten at all. 

In regard to pepper: There are three varieties, known as 
white, black and red. By many people red or cayenne is 
considered highly injurious, while they nevertheless use white 
or black; yet, if they but knew the truth of the matter the 
cayenne is decidedly the least injurious. Black and white 
pepper, which are virtually one and the same, are the ground 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


345 


immature fruit of a plant found in Ceylon, India, and other 
warm climates. The only difference between white and black 
pepper is that the former is the kernel of the seed of the plant, 
while the black is the fruit and seed ground together. 

No peppers are considered by good authorities as whole¬ 
some and some contend that they are much less harmful when 
cooked with the food and thoroughly incorporated with it, 
than when sprinkled upon it when served. It is alleged that, 
taken dry, the pepper fastens itself to the mucous membrane, 
frequently setting up a distressing irritation in either throat, 
oesophagus or stomach. Indeed, we do not require to eat it to 
have the irritating action of it clearly demonstrated. One has 
only to get an accidental whiff through the nose to realize to 
the full its irritating properties. 

Many will be heard to say: “Oh, but pepper adds such a 
relish to one’s food!” True, it seems as if such were the 
case, but why? Simply by causing the irritation that it does, 
it excites an abnormal flow of saliva and gastric juice, but 
the irritation works injury, which, if long persisted in, becomes 
permanent and thus causes distress and disease. 

Everything that has been said in regard to the destruction 
of the fine perception of taste by pepper and mustard and salt 
applies equally to the use of such spices as cinnamon, cloves, 
etc., which are so strong and pungent as to destroy all recogni¬ 
tion of simple and original flavors. Nothing is more objec¬ 
tionable to the natural taste than to have baked apples ruined 
with cinnamon and cloves, or to have either or both of these 
spices put into a dish of stewed prunes. The natural flavors 
are lost and the effect of the spices is nothing but harmful and 
injurious as well as destructive of the pleasure that the un¬ 
perverted taste finds in all normally flavored foods. 

Another serious injury that results from the use of these 
condiments and spices is that they create an unnatural thirst. 
While, as I have elsewhere shown, a normal desire for water 
should be satisfied, even though at meals, yet this is a very dif¬ 
ferent thing from the excessive drinking of tea, coffee, or even 
ordinarily harmless water, milk, fruit juices or other bever- 





346 MACFA DDE N’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ages that condiments and spices promote. Herein is the secret 
of the downfall, through alcoholic liquor drinking, of many a 
man and woman who would otherwise have remained an orna¬ 
ment to society. Why imperil manhood and womanhood for 
the sake of such absurd and unreal compensation as that given 
by a few moments’ titillation of the senses through condiments? 




CHAPTER XIV. 


CALCULATING FOOD VALUES—THE OLD 
SYSTEM AND THE NEW. 

B EFORE we can probe into details of food standards, or 
consider matters of food economy, it is necessary that 
we have some standard, other than market prices, by 
which to compare the real values of foods. Indeed, if actual 
values of foods were directly proportional to their market 
prices there would be no problem of food economy to solve, 
for there would be no opportunity to cut down the cost of 
living without cutting down the nutritive quality and impair¬ 
ing the efficiency of the diet. 

By Bulk or by Weight. —It may help in the understand¬ 
ing of why a scientific system of food measurement is neces¬ 
sary, if we first consider the measuring of foods by bulk and 
by weight. Part of the trickery of food manufacturers con¬ 
sists in making foods bulk up more. Some of the feathery 
breakfast foods come in this class. Imagine the foods with 
which you are familiar all being sold by the quart, and prices 
established on that basis. Then suppose a rival grocer should 
start selling all food by the pound. Immediately the price of 
lettuce would go up and the price of molasses would come 
down. 

The difference in the actual specific gravity of foods is 
slight, with the exception of molasses, not amounting to more 
than ten per cent, oils being about that much lighter than 
watery foods. It is therefore easy for us to understand that 
“a pint’s a pound the world around,” except when the pint con¬ 
tains air. But as a pint of all dry granular foods contains 
air in varying amounts, weighing is obviously more accurate 
than measuring. 

Whereas the amount of air changes the quantity of actual 
food when measured, so the amount of water present changes 
the actual food quantity when weighed. Watered milk, 
watered vinegar or watered oysters are obviously dishonest, 
because the water was added thereto by the hand of man. But 


348 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


if a dairyman could devise a method of feeding cows so that 
they would give milk containing twice as much water, the 
product would not be so patently dishonest. 

Food weights are meaningless unless we take into considera¬ 
tion the amount of water contained. 

Besides these differences in the air or water content, the 
chief fact that makes one food more concentrated per pound 
than another is the percentage of fat. There is no such thing 
as the artificial concentration of food beyond the extraction of 
the water. One might as well try to concentrate iron or gold. 
But fat is a substance which is a sort of naturally condensed 
food, being equivalent in fuel value pound for pound to two and 
one-fourth times as much as any other food substance. 

As the percentage of water and the proportion of fats are 
the chief reasons why the nutritive value varies for a given 
weight, it follows that the most variable forms of food are the 
meats which contain widely varying percentages of both water 
and fat. 

Combine both water and fat variation and the possibilities 
of variation in nutritive values is very great, as shown by the 
fact that a pound of oil contains fifty times as much fuel value 
as a pound of cucumbers. 

But before explaining the unit of food values, let us see 
what we are to measure. If cotton-seed oil has fifty times the 
nutriment of cucumbers, and cucumbers are worth ten cents 
per pound, the cotton-seed oil should be worth five dollars a 
pound. Yet cucumbers may sell for as much as cotton-seed 
oil. This may be due to the fact that cucumbers taste good, 
or that people think cucumbers are good for them—though 
it may fall out that cucumbers are bad for them. In short, 
there are many attributes that may affect the values of foods, 
other than the common quality by which we can measure them. 

Of the functions that foods perform for the human body, 
the one that demands the greatest quantity of food is the sup¬ 
plying of the elements for oxidation, or as we commonly say, 
for heat and energy. It would be far better if the idea of heat 
were left out entirely, for heat is produced in the body as a 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


349 


by-product of the expenditure of muscular energy. Moreover, 
heat to the average mind means temperature, and the control 
of bodily temperature is a matter not greatly affected by the 
nature or quantity of food eaten, and hence the measure of 
food in heat units is misleading. In fact, in so far as the 
nature of food does affect body temperature, it has recently 
been found that protein (lean meat) increases it, whereas fat 
has hitherto been supposed to be a “heating” food, merely 
because one pound of it will last longer in supplying normal 
body heat without increasing body temperature at all. If any 
difference between lean and fat meat is to be observed, we 
should eat fat meat in summer and lean meat in the winter. 

Heat and Energy Value. —Though the terms “heat” or 
“energy” are misleading if taken literally, yet the comparison 
of the total heat and energy value of foods is the fairest basis 
on which the cost of nutrition can be measured. Foods serve 
many and varied purposes in the body; certain food elements 
are needed to keep our teeth sound, others to keep the bowels 
active, yet all such important physiological needs may be met 
with a small but properly selected diet, and yet starvation 
occurs from sheer lack of sufficient quantity of foods. But all 
foods—at least all natural foods—whatever else may be their 
special contribution to the body’s needs, add to the supply of 
substance to be oxidized or burned up in the muscles to furnish 
energy and the resulting heat that keeps up body temperature. 
This use is common in all foods; it is the use that necessitates 
the most food, and, as it is a factor that can be scientifically 
measured, it has been chosen by all scientists as the logical 
measurement of food quantity and as a basis for comparing 
food costs. 

The unit used by food chemists is known as the calorie. It 
was a laboratory unit, and was determined by burning food 
in a special apparatus to measure the amount of heat produced. 
The number of calories so yielded per pound are given in the 
tables of analysis as published by the government. For the 
significance of the items of protein, carbohydrates and fat, see 
Chapter XVI. The ash content given in this table is the total 




350 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


of all mineral elements remaining when a sample of the food 
is burned. For a detailed discussion of the mineral elements, 
see Chapter XVII. 


STANDARD GOVERNMENT TABLE OF FOOD ANALYSIS. 


Composition of common food products. 


FOOD MATERIALS (as purchased) 

Refuse. 

Water. 

Protein. 

Fat. 

Carbo- 

hy¬ 

drates. 

ANIMAL FOOD. 






Beef, fresh: 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Chuck ribs. 

16.3 

52.6 

15.5 

15.0 


Flank . 

10.2 

54.0 

17.0 

19.0 


Loin. 

13.3 

52.5 

16.1 

17.5 


Porterhouse steak. 

12.7 

52.4 

19.1 

17.9 


Sirloin steak. 

12.8 

54.0 

16 5 

16.1 


Neck. 

27.6 

45.9 

14.5 

11 9 


Ribs. 

' 20.8 

43.8 

13 9 

JL JL . kJ 

21 2 


Rib rolls. 


63.9 

19.3 

16.7 


Round. 

7.2 

60 7 

19.0 

12 8 


Rump . 

20.7 

45.0 

13.8 

20.2 


Shank, fore. 

36.9 

42.9 

12 8 

7 3 


Shoulder and clod. 

16.4 

56.8 

16 4 

9.8 


Fore quarter. 

18.7 

49.1 

14.5 

17.5 


Hind quarter. 

15.7 

50.4 

15.4 

18^3 


Beef, corned, canned, pickled 




and dried : 






Corned beef. 

8.4 

49.2 

14.3 

23 8 


Tongue, pickled. 

6.0 

58.9 

11.9 

WLI. U 

19.2 


Dried, salted and smoked... 

4.7 

53.7 

26.4 

6^9 


Canned boiled beef. 


51.8 

25.5 

22.5 


Canned corned beef. 


51.8 

26.3 

18.7 


Veal: 





Breast. 

21.3 

52 0 

15.4 

11 0 


Leg. 

14.2 

KJ »\J 

60.1 

15.5 

7 9 


Leg cutlets. 

3.4 

68.3 

20.1 

7 5 


Fore quarter. 

25.5 

54.2 

15.1 

6 0 


Hind quarter. 

20.7 

56^2 

16.2 

6.6 


Mutton: 



Flank . 

9.9 

39 0 

13 8 

36 9 


Leg, hind . 

18.4 

W KS • \J 

51.2 

JLO.U 

15 1 

UU, C7 

14 7 


Loin chops . 

16.0 

42.0 

AU# JL 

13 5 

-Lt. I 

28 3 


Fore quarter . 

21.2 

41.6 

AU.U 

12.3 

^(J«U 

24.5 


Hind quarter, without tal¬ 



low . 

17.2 

45.4 

13.8 

23.2 


Lamb: 



Breast . 

19.1 

45.5 

1^4 

19 1 


Leg, hind . 

17.4 

52.9 

15.9 

13.6 


Pork, fresh: 



Ham . 

10.7 

48 0 

13 5 

25 9 


Loin chops . 

19.7 

41.8 

13.4 

24 2 


Shoulder . 

12.4 

44.9 

12 0 

29 8 


Tenderloin. 


66.5 

JL w. vy 

18.9 

13.0 


Pork,salted, cured and pickled: 




Ham, smoked. 

13.6 

34.8 

14 2 

.33 4 


Shoulder, smoked. 

18.2 

36.8 

13.0 

uO.rr 

26 6 


Salt pork. 


7 6 

1 9 

W V. VJ 


fracon, smoked . 

7.7 

17.4 

9.1 

OVJ. A 

62.2 






Ash . 

Fuel 

value 

per 

pound. 

Per ct. 

Calories. 

0.8 

910 

.7 

1,105 

.9 

1,025 

.8 

1,100 

.9 

975 

.7 

1,165 

.7 

1,135 

.9 

1,055 

1.0 

890 

.7 

1,090 

.6 

545 

.9 

715 

.7 

995 

.7 

1,045 

4.6 

1,245 

4.3 

1,010 

8.9 

790 

1.3 

1,410 

4.0 

1,270 

.8 

745 

.9 

625 

1.0 

695 

.7 

535 

.8 

580 

.6 

1,770 

.8 

890 

.7 

1,415 

.7 

1,235 

.7 

1,210 

.8 

1,075 

.9 

860 

.8 

1,320 

.8 

1,245 

■ .7 

1,450 

1.0 

895 

4.2 

1,635 

5 5 

1,335 

3.9 

3,555 

4 .X 

2,715 










































































































OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


351 


Composition of common food products.—Continued 


FOOD MATERIALS (as purchased) 

Refuse. 

Water. 

Protein. 

Fat. 

Carbo- 

hy¬ 

drates. 

Ash. 

Fuel 

value 

per 

pound. 

ANIMAL FOOD— Continued 
Sausage : 

Rnlogna. 

Per ct. 

3.3 

Per ct. 

55.2 

Per ct. 

18.2 

Per ct. 

19.7 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

3.8 

Calories. 

1,155 

2,075 

1,155 

235 

Pork. 

39.8 

13.0 

44.2 

1.1 

2.2 

Frankfort. 


57.2 

19.6 

18.6 

1.1 

3.4 

Soups : 

Felery cream of.. 


88.6 

2.1 

2.8 

5.0 

1.5 

Reef . 


92.9 

4.4 

.4 

1.1 

1.2 

120 

Meat stew . 


84.5 

4.6 

4.3 

5.5 

1.1 

365 

Tomato. 


90.0 

1.8 

1.1 

5.6 

1.5 

185 

Poultry : 

Pliirkpn broilers. 

41.6 

43.7 

12.8 

1.4 

.7 

305 

Fowls . 

25.9 

47.1 

13.7 

12.3 


.7 

765 

Fnnse . 

17.6 

38.5 

13.4 

29.8 


.7 

1,475 

1 ,060 

Turkey, . 

22.7 

42.4 

16.1 

18.4 


.8 

Fish: 

Fr*d dressed. 

29.9 

58.5 

11.1 

.2 


.8 

220 

Halibut, steaks or sections.. 

17.7 

61.9 

15.3 

4.4 


.9 

475 

44.7 

40,4 

50.7 

10.2 

4.2 


.7 

370 

Perrli vellow dressed^ 

35.1 

12.8 

.7 


.9 

275 

RVmd whole . 

50.1 

35.2 

9.4 

4.8 


.7 

380 

Rhad roe . 

71.2 

20.9 

3.8 

2.6 

.1.5 

600 

Fish, preserved: 

f^od sa.lt , llllIItfttf . 

24.9 

40.2 

16.0 

.4 

18.5 

325 

TTprrinor smokefl _ 

44.4 

19.2 

20.5 

8.8 


7.4 

755 

Fish, canned: 

Col m nti 

63.5 

21.8 

12.1 


2.6 

915 

Sardines . 

(Oil) 5.0 

53.6 

23.7 

12.1 


5.3 

950 

Shellfish: 

Orcf-prs “ solids ” .. 

88.3 

6.0 

1.3 

3.3 

1.1 

225 

Fla ms . 


80.8 

10.6 

1.1 

5.2 

2.3 

340 

Fra bs .... 

52.4 

36.7 

7.9 

.9 

.6 

1.5 

200 

Lobsters... 

61.7 

30.7 

5.9 

.7 

.2 

.8 

145 

Eggs: 

IT pnc’ pcrcrQ ..... 

11.2 

65.5 

13.1 

9.3 


0.9 

635 

X1CI1S eggs. 

Dairy products, etc.: 

Riit+er . 

(Shell) 

11.0 

1.0 

85.0 


3.0 

3,410 

"Whole milk . 


87.0 

3.3 

4.0 

5.0 

.7 

310 

Rkim milk . 


90.5 

3.4 

.3 

5.1 

.7 

] 65 

Riittermilk . 


91.0 

3.0 

.5 

4.8 

.7 

160 

Fondensed milk . 


26.9 

8.8 

8.3 

54.1 

1.9 

1,430 

Cream . . ... 


74.0 

2.5 

18.5 

4.5 

.5 

865 

f'Vieece FVieddnr . 


27.4 

27.7 

36.8 

4.1 

4.0 

2,075 

Fheese full cream .. 


34.2 

25.9 

33.7 

2.4 

3.8 

1,885 

VEGETABLE FOOD. 

Flour, meal, etc.: 

Pnfire.wbeflt flour .. 


11.4 

13.8 

1.9 

71.9 

1.0 

1,650 

X>IIlllC"VVHCcU liwUi ... 


11.3 

13.3 

2.2 

71.4 

1.8 

1,645 

Wheat flour, patent roller 
process — 

TTirrVi crrarlp and medium 


12.0 

11.4 

1.0 

75.1 

.5 

1,635 

illtlFt I dLiC dll Li .. 


12.0 

14.0 

1.9 

71.2 

.9 

1,640 

A/Tonoroni vprmieelli etc..., 


10.3 

13.4 

.9 

74.1 

1.3 

1,645 

lYldCdroll 1, VCl llULtlll, .. 

food. . 


9.6 

12.1 

1.8 

75.2 

1.3 

1,680 

VY nCal. UlCahiaot iuwu .. 

Pupb wVie^t flout* .. 


13.6 

6.4 

1.2 

77.9 

.9 

1,605 

IjULK WIICcil HL/ui ... 

T?re flour . . ... 


12.9 

6.8 

.9 

78.7 

.7 

1,620 

Corn meal ... 


12.5 

92 

1.9 

[ 75.4 

1.0 

1.635 
























































































352 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Composition of common food products.—Continued 


FOOD MATERIALS (as purchased) 


VEGETABLE FOOD—Continued 
Flour, meal, etc.—Continued. 

Oat breakfast food.. 

Rice... 

Tapioca.. 

Starch.. 

Bread, pastry, etc.: 

White bread. 

Brown bread. 

Graham bread. 

Whole-wheat bread. 

Rye bread. 

Cake. 

Cream crackers. 

Oyster crackers... 

Soda crackers. 

Sugars, etc.: 

Molasses. 

Candy (unmixed with nuts, 

chocolate, etc.). 

Honey. 

Sugar, granulated. 

Maple sirup. 

Vegetables :* 

Beans, dried. 

Beans, Lima, shelled. 


Refuse 


Per ct. 


Beans, string. 

7.0 

20.0 

15.0 

20.0 

Beets. 

Cabbage. 

Celery. 

Corn, green (sweet), edible 
portion. 

Cucumbers. 

15 0 
15.0 

Lettuce. 

Mushrooms. 

Onions. 

10.0 

20.0 

Parsnips. 

Peas, dried. 

Peas, shelled. 


Cowpeas, dried. 


Potatoes. 

20.0 

40.0 

20.0 

Rhubarb. 

Sweet potatoes.. 

Spinach. 

Squash. 

50.0 

Tomatoes. 

Turnips. 

30.0 


Baked beans. 
Peas, green... 
Corn, green.. 

Succotash. 

Tomatoes. 


Water. 

Protein. 

Fat. 

Carbo- 

. h y- 

drates. 

Ash. 

Fuel 

value 

per 

pound. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Calories. 

7.7 

16.7 

7.3 

66.2 

2.1 

1,800 

12.3 

8.0 

.3 

79.0 

.4 

1,620 

11.4 

.4 

.1 

88.0 

.1 

1,650 




90.0 


1,675 

35.3 

9.2 

1.3 

53.1 

1.1 

1,200 

43.6 

5.4 

1.8 

47.1 

2.1 

1,040 

35.7 

8.9 

1.8 

52.1 

1.5 

1,195 

38.4 

9.7 

.9 

49.7 

1.3 

1,130 

35.7 

9.0 

.6 

53.2 

1.5 

1,170 

19.9 

6.3 

9.0 

63.3 

1.5 

1,630 

6.8 

9.7 

12.1 

69.7 

1.7 

1,925 

4.8 

11.3 

10.5 

70.5 

2.9 

1,910 

5.9 

9.8 

9.1 

73.1 

2.1 

1,875 




70.0 


1,225 




96.0 


1 680 




81.0 


1 420 




100.0 


1 750 




71.4 


1 250 

12.6 

22.5 

1.8 

59.6 

3.5 

1,520 

68.5 

7.1 

.7 

22.0 

1.7 

540 

83.0 

2.1 

.3 

6.9 

.7 

170 

70.0 

1.3 

.1 

7.7 

.9 

160 

77.7 

1.4 

.2 

4.8 

.9 

115 

75.6 

.9 

.1 

2.6 

.8 

65 

75.4 

3.1 

1.1 

19.7 

.7 

440 

81.1 

.7 

.2 

2.6 

.4 

65 

80.5 

1.0 

.2 

2.5 

.8 

65 

88.1 

3.5 

.4 

6.8 

1.2 

185 

78.9 

1.4 

.3 

8.9 

.5 

190 

66.4 

1.3 

.4 

10.8 

1.1 

230 

9.5 

24.6 

1.0 

62.0 

2.9 

1,565 

74.6 

7.0 

.5 

16.9 

1.0 

440 

13.0 

21.4 

1.4 

60.8 

3.4 

1,505 

62.6 

1.8 

.1 

14.7 

.8 

295 

56.6 

.4 

.4 

2.2 

.4 

60 

55.2 

1.4 

.6 

21.9 

.9 

440 

92.3 

2.1 

.3 

3.2 

2.1 

95 

44.2 

.7 

.2 

4.5 

.4 

100 

94.3 

.9 

.4 

3.9 

.5 

100 

62.7 

.9 

.1 

5.7 

.6 

120 

68.9 

6.9 

2.5 

19.6 

2.1 

555 

85.3 

3 6 

.2 

9.8 

1.1 

235 

76.1 

2.8 

1.2 

19.0 

.9 

430 

75 9 

3.6 

1.0 

18.6 

.9 

425 

94,0 

1.2 

.2 

4.0 

i .6 

95 


* Such vegetables as potatoes, squash, beets, etc , have a certain amount of inedible material, skin, 
seeds etc. The amount varies with the method of preparing the vegetables, and cannot be accurately 
estimated. The figures given for refuse of vegetables, fruits, etc., are assumed to represent approxi¬ 
mately the amount of refuse in these foods as ordinarily prepared. 



















































































OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


353 


Composition of common food products.—Continued 


FOOD MATERIALS (as purchased) 

Refuse. 

VEGETABLE FOOD-Continned 
Fruits, berries, etc., fresh: 

Apples. 

Per qt. 
25.0 

Bananas. 

85.0 

Grapes. 

25.0 

Lemons . 

30.0 

Muskmelons. 

50.0 

Oranges . 

27.0 

Pears. 

10.0 

Persimmons, edible portion 
Raspberries . 


Strawberries . 

W atermelons. 

5.0 

59.4 

Fruits, dried: 

Apples . 

Apricots. 


Dates. 

10.0 


Rasins. 

10.0 

Nuts: 

Almonds. 

45.0 

Brazil nuts. 

49.6 

Butternuts. 

86.4 

Chest mits fresh . 

16.0 

Chestnuts dried. 

24.0 

Cocoanuts. 

*48.8 

Cocoanut, prepared. 

Filherts . 

52.1 

Hickory nuts. 

62.2 

Pecans. 

53.2 

Ppflrmts . 

24.5 

Pinon . 

40.6 

W^lnitfs black . 

74.1 

Walnuts English. 

58.1 

Miscellaneous: 

Chocolate ... 

Pnrnfl nowrlered . 


Cereal coffee, infusion (1 
part boiled in 20 parts 
water) f . 




Water 

Protein. 

Fat. 

Carbo- 

hy¬ 

drates. 

Ash. 

Fuel 

value 

per 

pound. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Calories. 

63.3 

0.3 

0.3 

10.8 

0.3 

190 

48.9 

.8 

.4 

14.3 

.6 

260 

58.0 

1.0 

1.2 

14.4 

.4 

295 

62.5 

.7 

.5 

5.9 

.4 

125 

44.8 

.3 


4.6 

.3 

80 

63.4 

.6 

.1 

8.5 

.4 

150 

76.0 

.5 

.4 

12.7 

.4 

230 

66 . 1 

.8 

.7 

31.5 

.9 

550 

85.8 

1.0 


12.6 

.6 

220 

85.9 

.9 

.6 

7.0 

.6 

150 

37.5 

.2 

.1 

2.7 

.1 

50 

28.1 

1.6 

2.2 

66.1 

2.0 

1,185 

29.4 

4.7 

1.0 

62 5 

2.4 

1,125 

13.8 

1.9 

2.5 

70.6 

1.2 

1,275 

18.8 

4.3 

.3 

74.2 

2.4 

1,280 

13.1 

2.3 

3.0 

68.5 

3.1 

1,265 

2.7 

11.5 

30.2 

9.5 

1.1 

1,515 

2.6 

8.6 

33.7 

3.5 

2.0 

1,485 

.6 

3.8 

8.3 

.5 

.4 

385 

37.8 

5.2 

4.5 

35.4 

1.1 

915 

4.5 

8.1 

5.3 

56.4 

1.7 

1,385 

7.2 

2.9 

25.9 

14.3 

.9 

1,295 

3.5 

63 

57.4 

31.5 

1.3 

2,865 

1.8 

7.5 

31.3 

6.2 

1.1 

1,430 

1.4 

5 8 

25 5 

4.3 

.8 

1,145 

1.4 

5.2 

33.3 

6.2 

.7 

1,465 

6.9 

19.5 

29.1 

18.5 

1.5 

1,775 

2.0 

8.7 

36.8 

10.2 

1.7 

1,730 

.6 

7.2 

14 6 

3.0 

.5 

730 

1.0 

6.9 

26.6 

6.8 

.6 

1,250 

5.9 

12 9 

48.7 

30.3 

2.2 

2.625 

4.6 

21.6 

28.9 

37.7 

7.2 

2,160 

98.2 

.2 


1.4 

.2 

30 


* Milk and shell. 

t The average of five analyses of cereal coffee grain is: Water 6 . 2 , protein 13 . 3 , fat 34 , carbo¬ 
hydrates 72 . 6 , and ash 4.5 per cent. Only a portion of the nutrients, however, enter into the infusion. 
Infusions of genuine coffee and of tea like the above contain practically no nutrients. 


Measuring by Wheat Pounds. —This idea of measuring 
food by calories seems in practical, every-day use strange 
and meaningless. It was a unit so small that a day’s food 
supply ran into the thousands of units, while the detailed 
figures became too complicated to be easily thought of and 
remembered. With a view to making the scientific measure- 





























































354 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ment of food values more practical, Milo Hastings of the staff 
of Physical Culture, and formerly of the Department of 
Agriculture, devised the wheat pound system. By this sys¬ 
tem the values of all foods are expressed by comparison with 
whole wheat. A pound of wheat is the unit of measurement, 
and may be expressed by 1.00. This wheat pound is the 
equivalent to 1,670 calories, and the value of foods expressed 
in calories may be reduced to wheat pounds by dividing bv 
six and pointing off four decimal places. 

The advantages of the wheat pound system are as follows: 
First, the unit of measurement seems to mean something prac¬ 
tical and comprehensible. Everyone has some idea of the 
food value and cost of a pound of wheat (or whole-wheat flour), 
while to conceive of the value of a calorie is a complex process, 
requiring abstract scientific reasoning. 

Second, the wheat pound is a unit of such size as to be 
significant in the daily bill of fare. One does not sell coal by 
the ounce or quinine by the ton. To say that a man should 
eat 2,505 calories in a day seems to lay a stress of accuracy 
that common sense shows to be impractical. To say that he 
should eat one and a half (1.50) wheat pounds has the ring 
of common sense, because the difference between 1.50 wheat 
pounds and 2.00 wheat pounds is significant and compre¬ 
hensible. 

The third advantage’ of the wheat pound system is that 
it greatly reduces the amount of calculation in figuring food 
values. Wheat is chosen as a unit instead of milk, bread or 
potatoes for the reason that there are a large number of foods 
that are essentially equivalent in food value to wheat. 

The first practical use to be made of the wheat pound 
system is in the comparison of food values with the market 
price. The second use is in computing quickly and practically 
the total amount of food eaten, so that one may form some¬ 
thing of an idea of whether he is under or over eating. 

A great deal of time has been utterly wasted in this world 
by the effort of busy, practical people to apply the complicated 
and beautifully scientific system of measuring foods by calories. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


355 


The scientist worships at the shrine of truth, and like most 
worshippers he misses the spirit in following the letter of 
the law. 

Thus we are gravely told by the United States Department 
of Agriculture that very lean loin of beef, as purchased, con¬ 
tains 475 calories per pound. From very lean the classifica¬ 
tion runs up through lean, medium fat, fat and very fat, and 
when we reach the last, then we have 1,525 calories per pound. 
The calorie statement is expressed to an accuracy of less than 
one-thousandth of the total figure, but the question of judg¬ 
ing as to whether the loin is very lean, lean, medium fat, just 
plain fat, or very fat, is left to the user and leaves room for 
error of judgment, with a range of a possible inaccuracy of 
over a hundred per cent. In other words, the scientific record¬ 
ing of the number of calories per pound which have been pub¬ 
lished in all government tables, and practically all dietetic 
books, have recorded calories several hundred times more ac¬ 
curately than the probable accuracy of judgment in estimating 
the fatness of a particular cut of beef. The only way the 
scientist could make such infinitely painful food chemistry 
practical would be to produce a breed of cattle that would 
grow standardized loin cuts! 

When the diet of a large portion of our population is known 
to be from fifty to one hundred per cent in excess of actual 
needs, and there are grave national and individual reasons for 
checking the enormous waste of excessive eating, we need some 
sort of a practical system to enable the food buyer of the 
household to get an approximate estimate of the food she 
serves her household. 

For this purpose the wheat pound system is feasible and 
comprehensible, and accurate enough for the work in hand. 
Careful trial calculations with varied diets have shown that 
the method of calculating food values in wheat pounds will 
never involve an error of more than ten per cent, as compared 
with the most painstaking calculation from government tables. 
As the variation in particular food samples is as great as this, 
further accuracy is meaningless. 




356 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Below you will find a very much simplified table for cal¬ 
culating the value of all foods in wheat pounds, and following 
it a table carried to two decimal places for use in more careful 
work. 

TABLE OF APPROXIMATE WHEAT POUND FACTORS. 

This brief table gives approximate results sufficiently accurate for 
every-day use. For more detailed calculations use the table that follows: 
To Find the Value in Wheat Pounds: 

Multiply the weight (in pounds) of the various foods by the figure 
given at the head of the group under which the food is listed. 
Multiply by 2.5 

Pure Oils and Rendered Fats (Lard, Tallow, etc.). 

Multiply by 2 

Butter, Oleomargarine, Meat Fats (not rendered). All nuts not 
elsewhere mentioned. 

Multiply by 1.8 

Cocoanut, Almonds, Bacon, Peanuts (roasted), Peanut Butter. 
Multiply by 1.1 

Cheese, Doughnuts, Cookies, Crackers, Granulated Sugar, Oatmeal, 
Popcorn. 

Take Weights as They Stand (Multiply by 1) 

Dry Cereals, Flours, Beans, Peas, Lentils, Sardines in Oil, Candy, 
Maple and Brown Sugar, Honey, Dates, Raisins, Figs, Currants, 
Cakes, Gingerbread, Sweetened Condensed Milk. 

Multiply by .8 

Biscuits and Rolls, Mince Pie, Molasses, Syrups, Prunes, Salt and 
Smoked Herring or Mackerel. 

Multiply by .7 

All Breads, Fruit Pies, Jams, Jellies, Preserves, Average Loin Cut 
of Beef, Ham, or Mutton, Lean Pork. 

Multiply by .6 

Eggs (measured by dozen, not pound). 

Multiply by .5 or Divide by 2 

Mature Poultry, Average Veal, Lean Beef, Salmon, Shad, Condensed 
unsweetened Milk, Custard and Pumpkin Pies, Puddings. 
Multiply by .33 or Divide by 3 

Salt Codfish, Fresh Halibut and Herring, Young Poultry, Sweet 
Potatoes, Baked Beans, Cottage Cheese, Fresh Lima Beans. 
Multiply by .25 or Divide by 4 

Potatoes, Bananas, Grapes, Plums, Corn (green or canned), Crabs, 
Lobster, Smelts, Trout. 

Multiply by .20 or Divide by 5 

Oysters, Haddock, Flounder, Cod, Okra, Parsnips, Whole Milk, Peas 
(green or canned). All fruits not otherwise mentioned. 

Multiply by .1 or Divide by 10 

Melons, Lemons, Strawberries, Cranberries, Pineapple. All vege¬ 
tables not otherwise mentioned. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


357 


DETAILED TABLE OF WHEAT POUNDS IN ONE POUND 

OF FOOD. 

To determine the food value in wheat pounds of any quantity of food, multiply 
the weight of the food in pounds by the figures here given. 


CEREAL GROUP. 

CEREALS AND FLOURS. 


Wheat, whole. 1.00 

Wheat flour, whole.. 1.00 

White flour.99 

Farina . 1.01 

Bran .90 

Shredded wheat. 1.02 

Macaroni and spa¬ 
ghetti .99 

Corn or cornmeal... .99 

Hominy .99 

Rice . 1.01 

Oatmeal . 1.12 

Rye flour.98 

Barley .98 

Popcorn . 1.19 

Cornflakes.99 

LEGUMES. 

Beans, navy.95 

Beans, lima, dry.96 

Peas, dry.99 

Cowpeas .90 

l entils .96 

Beans, baked.36 

BREADS. 

Zwiebach . 1.20 

Biscuits or rolls.80 

Boston Brown . «60 

Corn .72 

Sugar buns.90 

White .72 

Whole-wheat or gra¬ 
ham .72 

Rye .70 

PASTRY. 

Cakes, average. 1.00 

Cookies . 1.15 

Crackers . 1.15 

Doughnuts . 1.20 

Gingerbread . 1.00 

Pies, fruit, average.. .75 
Pies, custard or 

pumpkin .50 

Pies, mince.80 

Puddings.45 

SUGAR GROUP. 

Granulated sugar- 1.12 

Brown sugar. 1.05 

Maple sugar.92 

Candy, average. 1.05 

Vol. 1—23 


Honey .90 

Corn syrup (glucose) .88 

Maple syrup.80 

Molasses, cane.77 

SWEET FRUITS. 

Dates .95 

Raisins .95 

Figs.90 

Currants .90 

JELLIES, JAMS, PRESERVES 
AND MARMALADES. 

General average.70 

FAT GROUP. 

Olive oil. 2.53 

Cotton-seed oil.2.53 

Lard, or similar fat 2.53 

Butter . 2.15 

Oleomargarine .2.10 

Chocolate (dry pow¬ 
der) . 1.70 

Cocoa (dry powder) 1.40 

Ripe olives .73 

Clear beef fat (suet) 2.10 

Bacon, average. 1.75 

Salt pork, clear fat.. 2.20 

NUT MEATS. 

Almonds . 1.80 

Brazil nuts . 2.00 

Cocoanut, fresh. 1.70 

Cocoanut, prepared.. 1.80 
Filberts (hazelnuts) . 2.00 

Hickory nuts .2.00 

Peanuts . 1.55 

Peanut butter . 1.70 

Pecans . 2.05 

Walnuts, English-2.00 


Walnuts, black . 1.90 

VITAMINE GROUP. 

VEGETABLES. 


Asparagus.06 

Beans, fresh, lima... .35 

Beans, string.12 

Beets .13 

Cabbage .09 

Carrots .13 

Cauliflower .08 

Celery .05 

Cucumbers .05 

Corn, green or canned .27 
Greens, dandelions, 
etc.15 


Lettuce.05 

Mushrooms .12 

Okra .17 

Onions .13 

Parsnips .18 

Peas, fresh, uncooked .27 

Peas, canned .15 

Potatoes.23 

Radishes .13 

Rhubarb .06 

Spinach .07 

Squash .13 

Sweet potatoes.34 

Tomatoes, fresh or 

canned .06 

Turnips .11 

FRUITS. 

Apples .17 

Apples, dried.80 

Apricots .16 

Apricots, dried.80 

Bananas .27 

Blackberries .16 

Blueberries .13 

Cherries.22 

Cranberries .13 

Grapes .27 

Huckleberries .20 

Lemons .12 

Muskmelon.11 

Oranges .14 

Pears .17 

Pineapples .12 

Plums .24 

Peaches .13 

Prunes .84 

Raspberries.19 

Strawberries.10 

Watermelons . .08 


ANIMAL PROTEIN 
GROUP. 

MILK PRODUCTS. 

Cheese, full cream... 1.15 


Cheese, cottage.30 

Milk, whole .19 

Milk, skimmed.10 

Milk, condensed, un¬ 
sweetened .45 

Milk, condensed, 
sweetened .90 

EGGS. 

Eggs .48 















































































































358 MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


DETAILED TABLE OF WHEAT POUNDS IN ONE POUND 
OF FOOD .—Continued 


Eggs, white .15 

Eggs, yolks . 1.02 


MEATS. 


Beef 

Very lean round steak .40 


L)CC1, lld.ll lCd.il, lld.ll 

fat . 1.40 

(as very fat flank) 

Average loin cut.70 

Average round cut.. .50 

Dried beef.50 

Veal 

Very lean .35 

Breast, average.50 

Leg, average.40 

Mutton 

Very lean .55 


Loin (chop) average 1.10 


Leg, average.65 

Pork 

Fresh, v£ry lean.55 

Chops, average.95 

Ham, cured, average. .75 
Fowls 

Chicken, edible por¬ 
tion .30 

Chicken (based on 
purchase weight) .. .15 

Fowls, edible portion .60 
Fowls, purchase 
weight .45 

FISH. 

Bass (edible portion) .28 

Cod, fresh.20 

Cod, salt .35 

Flounder .18 


Haddock .20 

Halibut .34 

Herring, fresh .40 

Herring, smoked.75 

Mackerel, f resh.38 

Mackerel, salt.80 

Salmon, fresh.58 

Salmon, canned.54 

Sardines, canned.90 

Shad .45 

Smelt .25 

Trout .27 

SHELLFISH. 

Clams .15 

Crabs .22 

Lobster ....-.23 

Oysters, fresh.14 

Oysters canned...... .20 


No claim is here made that wheat pounds tell the whole 
story of food needs. Other essentials of a perfect diet must 
be considered, but the wheat pound system here given tells all 
the facts of heat or energy values of foods, the chief thing 
to be considered in figuring food quantity and food economy, 
and in the calculation of which the more complicated tables of 
calories are generally used. 

In the chapter on “How and When to Eat” you will be 
told all that science can tell you in regard to how much food 
you should eat. It will seem a rather confusing problem, as 
there are so many things that affect the amount of food needed. 

You can safely cut down on excessive eating with no other 
guide except your weight. If you are fatter than you need 
be, it is important that you cut down your food quantities 
considerably. Don’t be a food slacker and fear little hunger 
pangs. Thousands of fat people have reduced their diet and 
thereby reduced their weight, and increased health, vigor and 
improved their appearance and physical and mental efficiency. 

Even those of you who do not seem particularly fat, may 
be overeating. Try a moderate reduction in food and watch 
the scales. You will lose a few pounds, chiefly due to an 
emptying out of the congested intestines, but it will give you 
more room to breathe and a'better chance to think. As long 





































OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


359 


as you do not continue to lose weight to a point of actual thin¬ 
ness, the reduction of food quantities won’t hurt you, if the 
food quality is right. 

Overeating America's Favorite Sin. —We have been 
told repeatedly that we eat too much. The proof of the state¬ 
ment is seen when people who have hitherto given no thought 
to the quantity of food eaten decide to observe the matter of 
food economy as closely as they do their bank account. The 
outcome is that in four cases out of five the food intake is 
lowered, and genuine improvement in personal efficiency re¬ 
sults. Money is saved and health is gained, the business of 
living shows double profits, just as when a man makes a change 
in his farm or factory management that cuts costs and at the 
same time increases income. 

The conclusion that the majority of civilized men eat too 
much may be reached either by a process of general reason¬ 
ing, or by the observation of individual experiences. The wild 
man, along with the wild animals, was endowed with an appe¬ 
tite and food receiving capacity far in excess of what would 
be needed three times a day. Food in the jungle was available 
by fits and starts, and the meal hours were irregular. The 
man with the greater appetite and food capacity had a better 
chance of surviving unexpected delays in the meal hours than 
did the man of dainty appetite. Hence our instinct as to the 
amount of food to be eaten is often wide of the mark for 
present-day conditions. 

So today, at least among all of us, save those engaged in 
heavy muscular labor, the tendency is to overeat. Especially 
is this true of the man who in earlier life was devoted to 
athletic sports or engaged in heavy muscular labor, and who, 
upon changing to a more sedentary life, prides himself on his 
former capacity for “three square meals a day.” 

But the most convincing proof of the universal tendency to 
overeat is the vast number of those who have deliberately cut 
down their food quantity and gained better health thereby. 

Food, when taken in excess of that consumed by the activity 
of the body, is disposed of in one of three ways. The first aod 




360 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


most direct way is by indigestion. The excessive food simply 
refuses to digest completely and is passed out through the 
bowels. Once the food is absorbed from the digestive tract 
there is no way that it can be eliminated from the body, except 
it be burned up by oxidation. If the food once digested is not 
burned up, only one other thing can happen. It must be 
deposited in the body as fat. 

The conclusions from the above statements of physiological 
science are obvious and positive. If we overeat, and do not 
exercise to use up the surplus, we will get indigestioft or get 
fat. Hence overeating leads to either dyspepsia or obesity, 
and sometimes to both. Thus we see that the control of body 
weight becomes a matter of the control of the intake of the 
food in relation to the amount burned up by muscular activity. 
If we would get fat we should increase the food and cut down 
the exercise. If we would lose fat we must decrease the food 
and increase the exercise. But note this, that few people de¬ 
sire to get fat. Those who wish flesh usually mean that they 
want to get flesh over a bony form, and that the flesh desired 
is muscular tissue, not fatty tissue* Hence, in practice, we 
exercise to gain weight, and we exercise to lose weight, which 
seeming contradiction is absolutely scientific and proper. 

Dietary standards are measured in calories, or in the 
simpler unit of wheat pounds. Dietary standards were first 
arrived at by getting the facts as to how much food people do 
eat. For years such standards were published by the govern¬ 
ment and generally accepted by the scientific world. This 
conception of dietary standards was based upon the reasoning 
that all men should do what the average man does. 

In the table below is given a list of dietaries based on 
investigations of the foods eaten by men when free to eat 
what they enjoyed eating, or what they could afford to eat. 
From such investigations the Atwater or government standard 
of dietaries was arbitrarily derived and were excessive because 
overeating is a universal sin—and, as the variations below will 
show, because men come nearer eating what they can afford to 
pay for than what they need for efficiency. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 361 


7 


Wheat 


Calories Pounds 


United States: Men at hard, muscular labor. 6,000 3.6 

Athletes . 4,510 2.7 

Men at moderate muscular labor. 3,425 2.0 

Men not employed at muscular occupations. 3,285 1.9 

Very poor working people. 2,100 1.2 

Ireland: Workingmen .•. 3,107 1.8 

England: Workingmen . 2,685 1.6 

Germany: Workingmen (hard work). 3,061 1.8 

Japan: Laborers . 4,415 2.6 

Professional men . 2,190 1.3 

China: Laborers . 3,400 2.0 


In the last fifteen years a change, in which physical culture 
has been a leading advocate, has occurred in favor of lighter 
dietary standards. Now we would make the standard dietary 
an ideal dietary and not merely an average dietary. 

Scientific work, recently conducted, enables us to determine 
such standard dietaries that are based upon the study of the 
ideal food intake rather than upon the average. This new 
standard dietary is not to be accepted as an absolute standard, 
but only as a basis to work from, for we now realize that there 
can be no standard applicable to all men, and that each in¬ 
dividual must work out his own dietary standard, as affected 
by season and climate, stature, age, occupation, the degree of 
muscular activity, sex, and lastly the weight or degree of fat¬ 
ness. 

We must have a basic unit to start from. This we call /V\(AA* 
a man- day, which is the amount of food required to keep up 
the bodily strength and weight of the typical man 5 feet 8 — 
inches in height, weighing 150 pounds and engaged in light 
indoor labor with exercise equivalent to two hours a day brisk 
walking in the open air. Such a man-day unit of food, or 
dietary standard, is 1.5 wheat pounds, or about 2,500 calories. 

From this basis other standards may be derived by correcting 
for variations as discussed in the chapter on “Adapting the 
Diet to Various Conditions.” 
















CHAPTER XV 


PROTEIN REQUIREMENTS—THE EXTRAVA¬ 
GANCE OF MEAT 

P ROTEIN is distinctive from all other food elements in 
that it is the chief substance or rather the group of sub¬ 
stances from which the actual organs and tissues of the 
body are formed and repaired. The other great groups of food 
elements, the starches, sugars and fats, can only supply heat 
and energy or go to form body fat. For this reason, since the 
early days of food chemistry, the protein group of food sub¬ 
stances has always been conceded to be of especial importance. 

Ancient Faith in Protein. —For many years protein 
was also thought to be the source of muscular energy, for the 
reason that the muscles are composed of protein. This belief 
has been known to be erroneous for half a century, yet it had 
a hold, even upon the scientists, who had difficulty in getting 
away from the idea that a hungry, hard-working man must 
have meat to keep up his strength. 

The food chemists of our colleges, before 1903, taught that 
a diet relatively rich in protein was the diet for strength and 
endurance. As a result the athletic training tables of those 
days were heaped high with juicy beefsteaks, ham and eggs, 
and milk and cheese. About this time Horace Fletcher, a re¬ 
tired college and business man, appeared, at Yale University 
and asked to be subjected to strength tests in the Yale gym¬ 
nasium. Mr. Fletcher at that time was in his fifties, yet he 
broke strength records made by the young and vigorous ath¬ 
letes of the university. His endurance was far greater than 
that ever before recorded for a man of his age. Without 
previous training he was enabled to undergo the most severe 
ordeals without any of the resulting muscular soreness that 
commonly follows such tests. 

Mr. Fletcher ascribed his superior condition to his eating 
habits, the chief distinction of which was that he practiced 
exceedingly thorough mastication and had developed his sense 

362 


OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


363 


of taste until his food selection was very different from that 
of the conventional American bill-of-fare. An investigation 
of Mr. Fletcher’s diet showed that he not only was eating a 
great deal less food than was supposed to be essential to health 
and strength, but that he was also eating a smaller proportion 
of protein, about forty grams a day, whereas the dietary stand¬ 
ard called for 150 grams for an athlete. 

Professor Chittenden of Yale became so interested that he 
conducted a series of researches which gave most remarkable 
results and seemed to indicate that protein, instead of being 
of greater value for strength production than other foods, was 
an actual detriment, and when taken above the necessary 
minimum is prone to increase fatigue and lessen endurance. 

This revolution in the conventional dietetic teachings was 
seriously and stubbornly questioned by the orthodox scien¬ 
tists. The Danish government took particular pains to investi¬ 
gate the subject and gave Professor Hinhede a laboratory 
for such research. Hinhede not only confirmed the con¬ 
clusions of Fletcher and Chittenden, but went even further in 
the reduction of proteins and showed that a man could live 
and thrive for months upon a protein intake as low as 20 to 30 
grams per day, not quite equal to four eggs. _. 

These findings in favor of low protein have not been wholly 
accepted, but practically the entire scientific world has con¬ 
ceded that the former dietetic standards were entirely wrong, 
and that a much lower rate of protein consumption is desirable 
than was formerly considered necessary. This faith of science 
in the lower protein standards had a very practical application 
in connection with the European War, enabling the warring 
governments to feed their people upon a diet containing a 
much smaller proportion of’meat and dairy products than 
would have been considered possible a few years ago. Mr. 
Fletcher spent much of his time in Belgium during the first 
years of the war, and he insists that in spite of the great depri¬ 
vation and the misery of the Belgians the low protein rations 
materially contributed to improved physical conditions and a 
lower death rate. 






364 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


The question of the amount of protein is, in practice, the 
question of heavy meat eating and is complicated by the fact 
that meat foods are highly flavored and that people like these 
stimulating flavors. Because such foods are expensive to 
produce and taste good, the rich, prosperous people, whether 
individuals or nations, consume more of these foods than their 
poorer brethren. 

Meat-eating races, that is, the rich, well-fed of the earth, 
have been the successful, domineering sort. The poor ape 
their betters and strive to adopt their habits, and the beef¬ 
eating Englishman, who went out and conquered half the 
earth, has never quite got rid of the idea that his beef was 
partly responsible for his power. Vegetarian arguments about 
the strength of the rice-eating Oriental have been copiously 
printed, but never more than half believed, and the prejudice 
in favor of meat, backed up by its good taste, has kept alive 
the notion that the protein foods, especially those from the 
flesh of animals, are of particular value and potency. 

Conservation in War Time. —The vegetarian has 
eschewed the flesh of animals for physical, mental, or moral 
reasons, but always for very personal reasons. The social re¬ 
sponsibility, the possibility of the vegetarian’s peculiarities in 
diet being of consequence pro or con in the affairs of the nation, 
has rarely entered into the argument. 

With the world famine upon us we, as a people, felt obliged 
to see it through, not only for ourselves, but for civilization, 
and food questions which were formerly personal matters be¬ 
come social and patriotic matters of the greatest importance. 

With a view of conserving our food supply, many writers 
have urged the prohibition of the killing of young meat animals. 
Germany, at the beginning of the world-wide war, took the 
opposite policy, and enforced the slaughter of about one-third 
of her meat-producing animals. But later the Germans, be¬ 
cause of the deprivation of fats, altered their policy, and in the 
third year of the war preserved their young stock, and at great 
privation to themselves brought the number of domestic ani¬ 
mals far back toward the original figures. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


365 


But the American situation is different from the German, 
and we should cut down rather than increase our meat produc¬ 
tion. The isolated German nation represented an unbalanced 
state of agriculture, in which fat was produced in quantities 
insufficient for either the nourishment of the population or 
for the technical needs for fat in industry, and particularly 
in the manufacture of munitions. How hard put the Germans 
were was indicated by the report that the Imperial Govern¬ 
ment used butter in the manufacture of munitions. This may 
or may not be true, but the fat famine in Germany was un¬ 
questionably the most acute phase of the nation’s food shortage 
during the war. 

The United States is a heavy producer of food fats, not 
only because of her great meat industries, but because of her 
jvery considerable output of cotton-seed oil. While dietitians 
dispute the interchangeability of vegetable and animal proteins, 
it is generally conceded that fat from vegetable sources is 
dietetically as good or better than fat from animals—with the 
exception of butter. 

So long as there is actual shortage of grain for human 
sustenance, and a comparative abundance of food fats in 
America, it is certainly grossly extravagant to feed so much 
of our food grains to animals. It requires five or six pounds 
of grain to produce one pound of beef, and beef averages less 
than twenty per cent of fat. This means that about twenty- 
five pounds of grain are required to produce one pound of beef 
fat. Dietetically, a pound of fat is worth two and one-fourth 
pounds of grain, hence the loss of food value in producing beef 
fat is in the ratio of ten to one. 

In feeding hogs, because of the greater proportion of fat 
in the carcass, the ratio of loss of food value is not so great, 
probably five to one. 

Because of the more vital need for milk in the diet than 
for meat, and because, as a whole, including its fat, it is the 
most economical form of converting vegetable foods into animal 
foods, milk production should not be curtailed. 

Yet we need have no fear of a meat famine, for meat from 




366 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 

cows and calves produced as a by-product of the dairy indus¬ 
try, together with our milk, poultry, pork and fish, will more 
than supply the real needs of our people, and leave a surplus 
that may be exported. 

An article in Physical Culture, 1910, stated: “Savages in 
cold climates were forced to eat meat and found the natural 
game of the forest only sufficient for a sparse population. Fol¬ 
lowing the hunter came the herdsman, who thrives only as long 
as land and grass and grain are so abundant as to make a 
wasteful method possible. In this new country we became 
heavy meat eaters, and though our population doubled every 
generation, our land area was so vast that we kept up the 
practice for a century. But now the need for land for the 
direct production of human food has become sufficient to make 
us feel the pinch. 

“When, in more densely populated countries meat ap¬ 
pears rarely upon the bill of fare, we are taught that it was 
due to poverty, political reasons, or some other far removed 
cause. As a matter of fact, the people of Belgium or China 
cannot eat meat three times a day because they cannot afford 
to produce it. It would take three or four acres of ground to 
support a man if we depended solely upon meat for the source 
of human energy. On the other hand, an acre of ground will 
easily support three or four men when growing a variety of 
plants.” 

To bring the question of food patriotism back to the in¬ 
dividual, we are bound to conclude that vegetarianism is quite 
as 'patriotic a way to avoid national waste as the skimping and 
scrap-saving so urgently commended by the government and 
the press . 

The greatest American extravagance is the excessive con¬ 
sumption of animal protein, chiefly meat, and this waste has 
received endorsement from the high authorities. A dietary 
which a leading government food chemist recommended was 
found to derive forty-one per cent of its total food value from 
the animal protein group, the cost being sixty-six per cent of 
the total. As ten per cent of animal protein in the diet is suffi- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


367 


cient for healthful nutrition, there is a waste authorized here 
that amounts to about fifty per cent of the total food cost. 

Such a reduction of our excessive meat eating would save 
from five to ten pounds of grain for each pound of meat not 
eaten, and hence, not produced. 

Cash is readily translated into its equivalent in human life, 
and we are told that three cents will buy a meal for a starving 
child. With equal honesty we might placard our butcher shops 
with the statement that for every pound of steak which we 
refrain from eating we release grain enough to furnish a hungry 
man bread for a week. 

Human prosperity and power is a thing of many causes 
and we now know that heavy meat eaters eat more because 
they like it and can get it and are powerful in spite of that 
fact, not because of it. Some protein food is essential to life, 
growth and health; the discussion between the old and the new 
ideas is based not upon its necessity, but upon the amount 
necessary. 

Protein in Excess Harmful. —Protein substances are 
not altogether different from the other foods. In fact, three- 
fourths of the weight of protein foods are composed of the 
same basic carbon and hydrogen compounds that form starches 
and sugars. When protein is eaten in excess of the body’s 
needs, it is separated into simpler components, and the fourth 
of it which contains the element nitrogen is discarded and 
excreted in the urine, while the remainder is utilized as starch 
and sugar are utilized. 

This process of discarding part of the protein eaten in 
excess of our actual needs is now known to be physiologically 
harmful. Certain¬ 
ly it represents a 
great economic 
waste, for not only 
is the substance 
wasted, but it is 

cnficfflnPP that An example of the wastefulness of the high proteid 
suuatai v. diet. French lamb chops—cost twenty cents each; cost of 

costs five to ten actual food nutrients one dollar and fifty-two cents per 






368 


MAC FA DDE N J S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


times as much as the substances which it only partly replaces. 
Both economy and health here argue to the same end that 
we should eat only as much protein foods as we need, and that 
to eat more is foolish, if not actually harmful. Eating excess 
of protein is like burning the furniture to warm the house. 
Coal is better fuel and is decidedly more economical. 

This question of how much protein we should eat is very 
important to the man who would cut down the cost of living— 
as important as would be the question of getting coal if one 
were heating his house by burning tables and chairs. If you 
want to save money, patronize the butcher less and the cereal 
counter and the vegetable man more. 

The dietetic teachings now advocated as the “low protein 
diet” are closely akin to the vegetarian theories. Vegetarians 
have always shown up remarkably well in athletic competition, 
especially where the event depended upon endurance. In long¬ 
distance races, in America, England and Germany, the per¬ 
centage of vegetarians who finish in the lead has always been 
greater than the percentage of winning meat-eaters. About 
ten years ago, Professor Irving Fisher of Yale put this matter 
to a definite trial by taking the number of simple endurance 
tests of vegetarians as against meat-eaters; the resultant show¬ 
ing for the vegetarians was highly favorable to their claims. 

A strange inconsistency on the part of vegetarians is the 
idea that they should have “meat substitutes.” If meats are 
a thing of evil and not part of the natural diet of man, why 
have meat substitutes? It is hardly fair to accuse the leaders 
of the vegetarian movement of thus deliberately condemning 
their own doctrines. It is a more likely explanation that this 
idea of the need of meat substitutes was adopted by the general 
public who believed there was something good in both theories 
and that by eating meat substitutes they would gain the benefit 
supposed to come from meat and sidestep its evil effects. This 
idea was undoubtedly strengthened by the belief that large 
quantities of protein were essential to a healthful diet. We 
now know that this belief never had a scientific foundation, 
and that modern evidence indicates that it is exactly opposite 
to the truth. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


369 




Dish containing all edible meat secured from three 
pound chicken. Weight eighteen ounces—cost of chicken 
per pound, 50 cents. Cost of edible meat per pound, $1.33. 


The vegetarian in opposing the excessive use of meat agreed 
with scientific truth in a rather unscientific way. But in prac¬ 
tice it is not wise to omit the animal proteins altogether. In 
modest quantities, preferably from milk and eggs, they are 
desirable if not actually necessary, and for giving taste and 
flavor they are essential for us who have been so long accus¬ 
tomed to eating them. 

Nearly all vegetable foods in their natural forms contain 
small proportions of proteins. Were it not for this fact, life 
upon this globe 
would be impos¬ 
sible, as all animals 
would then have 
to eat each other 
—a very difficult 
state of affairs. 

But the vegetarian 
animal has a larger 
digestive appa¬ 
ratus than man. 

Vegetarians get 
around this fact 
either by advocat¬ 
ing large quan¬ 
tities of nuts in the 
diet, or by meet¬ 
ing the meat-eater 
half way and in¬ 
cluding milk and 
eggs and tabooing 
flesh foods. Others 
allow fish, on the 
theory, perhaps, 
that it doesn’t hurt 
a fish so much to 
die because it isn’t 

rpd-hlnnded Entire edible flesh of chicken (dried). Weight, 

1CU U1UUUCU, and one . ha)f ounces—cost per pound $3.20. 


Unedible portion of cooked chicken, weight sixteen ounces. 






370 


MACF AD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


But these are sentimental and rather unscientific aspects 
of the question. Only a small per cent of Americans are vege¬ 
tarians by conviction, and the complete adoption of vegeta¬ 
rianism usually involves worries and fears about getting- 
enough protein, and especially about getting the right kind 
of protein. Animal proteins are the right kind, if not eaten 
in excess, because the needs of animals are very like our own. 
Milk and eggs, being created in the scheme of things for the 
express purpose of nourishing young life, are the best of all, 
and an effort to exclude them from the diet, especially the diet 
of children, is a dangerous experiment. Moreover, milk is rea¬ 
sonable in cost and to exclude it from the diet is both bad 
cooking and false economy. 

Further light will be thrown on this question by the con¬ 
sideration of the difference in food quality of the different 
proteins. 

Quality Variation in Protein.— One of the serious 
errors of the former chemists was the considering of all protein 
as of practically equal nutritive value. While it has long been 
known that proteins were highly complex chemical substances 
of many different sorts, the chemists were until recently unable 
to analyze them. In fact, the percentage of protein given 
in the old foo‘d tables was not determined as protein at all, 
but the chemist merely determined the amount of the element 
nitrogen and estimated the protein by multiplying the amount 
of nitrogen by a figure derived from the average percentage 
of nitrogen in the various proteins. 

More recent chemical investigations have not only resulted 
in distinguishing a great number of proteins, but in also deter¬ 
mining the more elementary compounds that go to make up 
the individual protein. To show how immensely complex 
is the chemistry of these food substances we may consider first 
the total protein in a given natural food. This is again divided 
into various individual proteins; for instance, milk contains 
casein and albumen, wheat contains, among others, gliadin and 
glutenin, while eggs contain albumen and ovo-vitelin. Each 
of these particular proteins is again composed of numerous 





Copyright. Underwood & Underwood. N. Y. 


Harvesting the golden product of the corn fields. 


37 1 



























. 






































■ 






























































































































































& 






OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


373 


substances known as amino-acids. Some eighteen or twenty 
of these amino-acids have been chemically isolated and the 
approximate proportion of each in the different proteins deter¬ 
mined. However, this analysis is approximate only, and it is 
highly probable that not all of the amino-acids have been 
isolated and named. Enough is known, however, to show the 
enormous complexity of protein chemistry and to show also 
why various proteins, or proteins from various foods, are not 
all of equal value in the diet. 

To make this clear it should be explained that proteins are 
not absorbed from the digestive tract as such, but are broken 
down into the various amino-acids which then pass into the 
blood in these simpler forms. From the blood stream carrying 
amino-acids in varying proportions the cells of the body select 
those needed to build the various proteins. As the body pro¬ 
teins are also very numerous and complex, we see the reason 
that the amino-acids from different food proteins will not be 
supplied in the exact proportions the body requires. More¬ 
over, the requirements for protein building material will vary 
according to the demands of the body as determined by the 
various stages of growth and functional activities of the in¬ 
dividual. 

From this brief sketch of protein chemistry it will be seen 
that we may expect that some protein foods will be so com¬ 
posed as to supply the bodily needs with but little waste, while 
with others a large surplus would be required in order that 
the human cells might find the exact ingredients needed for 
growth and activity. Moreover, since all proteins do not con¬ 
tain all the amino-acids, it is likely that some would prove 
wholly deficient and incapable of completely nourishing the 
body or sustaining normal growth. 

All the above theoretical assumptions have been demon¬ 
strated by feeding experiments upon animals. The most 
important protein in corn kernel is zein, which substance is 
lacking in three amino-acids that are commonly found in the 
proteins of living animal tissues. On the other hand, the pro¬ 
teins of beans and peas seem from chemical analysis to more 




374 M A CF A DDE N J S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


nearly approach those of animal tissues. But the chemical 
knowledge is not sufficiently accurate to enable the chemist to 
anticipate what will support protein metabolism in the animal 
body, as revealed by the fact that corn protein proves a better 
source of growth than that of beans and peas. An account 
of an actual feeding test will show how such facts are deter¬ 
mined: Rats were given a diet complete in every respect as 
to fats, carbohydrates, salts and vitamines. To such a diet the 
protein from a single food, and that only, was supplied, and 
from experimental trials the amount of protein necessary to 
just maintain the weight of the animal is determined. 

The following percentages of protein from various foods 
were found to be just sufficient to maintain body weight. 


Milk .3 per cent of the entire food 

Oats . 4.5 per cent of the entire food 

Millet .4.5 per cent of the entire food 

Corn .6 per cent of the entire food 

Wheat .6 per cent of the entire food 

Rice . 6 per cent of the entire food 

Flax .8 per cent of the entire food 

Beans .12 per cent of the entire food 

Peas .12 per cent of the entire food 


A similar experiment was conducted with young pigs. But 
in this case protein from the various sources was supplied in 
reasonable abundance and the amount retained in the body, 
or utilized for growth, was determined. The pigs utilized: 

20 per cent of the corn protein. 

23 per cent of the wheat protein. 

26 per cent of the oat protein. 

63 per cent of the milk protein. 

The striking thing about both of these experiments is the 
very great superiority in nutrition of the protein from milk. 
This result, however, is perfectly logical because the milk pro¬ 
teins were built up for that specific purpose of furnishing mate¬ 
rial for growth, while the proteins in plant substances as well 
as the protein in meat are created to serve other functions 
than that of the nourishment. The superiority of milk as a 
food is not confined to its protein content alone, but its mineral 
and vitamine contents are equally efficient as will be shown in 
the following chapters. 













OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


375 


Scientists have not, at this writing, made full investigations 
of the relative value of protein from all food sources, nor can 
the investigation upon other species of animals apply absolutely 
to the human nutrition. We can, however, derive certain prin¬ 
ciples from the investigations thus far made that will be of 
use in determining the approximate value of protein from 
various foods. Milk as already clearly demonstrated heads 
the list for the efficiency of its protein. A close second is eggs. 
Next in value we may expect to find the proteins of flesh food. 
This statement may seem contradictory to the general teach¬ 
ings in this work of the evils of excessive meat eating. How¬ 
ever, the two statements will be seen to be in absolute harmony 
when we recall that the conventional meat diet supplies many 
times the amount of protein actually required for efficiency 
nutrition. Since the average proportion of protein in a diet 
of cereals, nuts and vegetables, together with milk and eggs, 
furnish an ample amount of protein, the use of meat as a 
source of protein is uncalled for, and such dangers as may be 
involved in the introduction of disease germs or poisonous waste 
products of the animal through meat is a danger that may very 
wisely be avoided. There is ample evidence that there is no 
quality in meat protein that cannot be better secured through 
milk and eggs, and since the quantity of protein required is 
much smaller than that usually eaten, meat is unnecessary as 
a source of protein, either from a quantitative or qualitative 
standpoint. 

Therefore, when milk and eggs are available the use of 
meat must be defended upon other grounds than that of normal 
nutrition. For the growing child the substitution of meat for 
milk and eggs is never to be advised or tolerated where the 
purer forms of animal protein can be secured. For the adult 
meat may be utilized as a source of protein if taken in small 
quantities and no harm will ordinarily result. 

Relative Value of Vegetable Protein. —The relative 
value of vegetable proteins is a point upon which we still 
need more light. The present information would indicate that 
oats rank higher than wheat, and wheat higher than corn. But 

Vol. 1—24 




376 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


a more important discovery is that the leguminous foods (peas 
and beans) have in the past been generally over-estimated as 
a source of protein. This use of legumes was formerly en¬ 
dorsed on the grounds that they were meat substitutes, a view 
in harmony with the old belief that a large percentage of 
protein was essential to the diet. Our modern knowledge of 
the smaller amount of protein required, together with the later 
discovery of the lesser value of these proteins, would indicate 
that this use of vegetable meat substitutes is uncalled for. This 
does not mean that the leguminous foods are harmful, but 
merely that they add no great value to the diet. The fact that 
they are richer in flavor and that our habit of using them as 
“meat substitutes” may justify but it does not necessitate 
their continuance in the diet in their accustomed place. 

Certain vegetable protein foods were much advocated dur¬ 
ing the war, such as the soy bean and the peanut, and the 
meals made from the residue from the oil extraction of these 
products. These foods are wholesome and the evidence avail¬ 
able indicates that the protein quality is somewhat higher than 
that of ordinary beans and peas. The same general state¬ 
ment may be made regarding the protein of nuts. I advocate 
the use of all these materials as wholesome and valuable foods 
as I have found them of practical use in winning people away 
from their extravagant and excessive use of meat. The teach¬ 
ings of the recent discoveries in this field is merely that meat 
substitutes are not as essential to healthful nutrition as was 
formerly supposed. 

A further teaching from the recent scientific discoveries 
regarding the composition of proteins is that a mixture of 
proteins from various sources will often make good the de¬ 
ficiencies of the proteins from a single food. Hence, as a 
general principle, we may conclude that the protein require¬ 
ments on a mixed diet would be less than that of a more limited 
diet. For illustration, gelatin was formerly said to be of little 
nutritive value, as it has long been known that it was not a 
complete protein. While gelatin alone will not support life, 
it is found that the addition of gelatin to a diet containing 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


377 


only the protein from a single grain will greatly increase the 
growth supporting power of the grain protein. The proteins 
of a combination of grains are also found to be better than 
those from any single grain of the group. 

Not much is yet known of the quality of protein from vege¬ 
tables, though those from the potato have been determined 
to be somewhat inferior to the protein from grains. Note care¬ 
fully, however, that no practical application should be made 
of this statement or of similar discoveries that may yet be made 
indicating that the protein from this or that fruit or vegetable 
is not of high quality. The value of protein from fruits and 
vegetables is relatively unimportant, for these foods are not 
to be judged by their protein contribution to nutrition. 

On the whole the question of protein has received more 
prominence in dietetic teachings than it really deserves, for 
while essential to life and growth it is sufficiently supplied in 
all mixed diets. The practical problem, both from a stand¬ 
point of health and economy, is to keep the protein content 
of the diet from being excessive. The dangers of deficiency 
in diet is not in protein at all, except in most unusual cases, 
but is the lack of the mineral salts and vitamines, which will 
be discussed in the two following chapters. 

Substitutes for Meat. —If the use of meats in the quan¬ 
tities ordinarily eaten in American homes is a dietetic evil 
rather than a benefit, what we want is not meat substitutes 
to give us an excess of protein, but merely other normal foods 
to replace the meat eaten. 

Because of the reasons fully explained, I no longer advocate 
the use of high protein meat substitutes. The beans, peas and 
macaroni that we have been in the habit of calling meat sub¬ 
stitutes are no longer so cheap as they once were. Moreover, 
their dietetic value has been over-estimated. Their proteins 
are not as palatable nor as well suited to our bodily needs as 
the proteins of animal origin. The use of proteins from milk 
and eggs will prove as economical and more healthful than an 
excessive use of such vegetable protein meat substitutes. 

But there is another sort of meat substitute which I deem 




378 MACF AD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


to be thoroughly sound in theory and often necessary in prac¬ 
tice. Our habits of eating require that the meal have a sort 
of centerpiece or hub which is preceded by the soup and fol¬ 
lowed by the dessert. In ordinary American cookery the 
“piece de resistance” or hub of the meal has been a meat dish. 
With it we have eaten bread and butter, potatoes or other 
vegetables. There is no real reason why a meal need be eaten 
in this fashion, but man is not a creature of reason but a crea¬ 
ture of habit. To make food economy practical to the largest 
number of people the efficient thing to do is to require the least 
necessary change from past habits. Therefore I advise the 
use of dishes that may be served as the hub of the meal, as 
meat is usually served. These dishes may truly be called meat 
substitutes, as they enable one to follow the customary meal 
habits and leave the table feeling well fed. The exact chemical 
composition of such dishes is of less importance than is the 
flavor and manner of serving. If one cannot give up the lik¬ 
ing for the taste of meat, use for such meat substitutes may 
be dishes made of part meat, or of well-flavored fried or baked 
products which may be served or eaten in the same manner 
as meat dishes. The general adoption of such dishes in the 
place of straight meat will result in a saving of from twenty 
to forty per cent of the food bill. 

Butter substitutes may be considered from two standpoints: 
First, as a food that is equivalent to butter in both the nature 
and the quantity of the nutrition furnished; and second, a food 
to be eaten as butter is eaten and which will therefore cut 
down the amount of butter used. 

In the first instance cotton-seed oil, or other cheap cooking 
fats, used in cakes and other dishes that ordinarily call for 
butter may be considered a dietetic equivalent for the fat of 
butter furnishing the same amount of nutriment and being 
distinguished only by the lack of the peculiar “rich” butter 
flavor and the presence of the butter vitamine. 

To use butter for general frying is an obvious extravagance, 
yet in many homes it has become the custom to fry certain 
foods in butter, because lard, which is the only other fat used, 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


379 


gives an objectionable flavor. If cotton-seed oil be substituted 
for both lard and butter, it would cut expenses in both in¬ 
stances, and the unwelcome flavor which lard gives to certain 
foods will be no longer an excuse for frying in butter. The 
only cases in which butter should be used in economical cook¬ 
ing are those in which the other ingredients are very weak in 
flavor and butter is relied upon to give flavor to the dish. 

Because of our universal habit of eating butter spread on 
our bread, any other spread for bread will reduce the quantity 
of butter used. In the case where much fat meat is used there 
is no need for butter to add fat to the diet, but economy may 
be gained and food be made more palatable if sugar products 
are used as spreads for bread in place of a large portion of 
butter frequently used by Americans. An example of such 
a dish is orange marmalade so commonly used by the English. 

The following is a standard recipe for marmalade. Vary¬ 
ing proportions of oranges, lemons and grapefruit will give 
a variety of similar marmalades. 

ORANGE MARMALADE. 

Wheat pounds 4.61. Cost of recipe 46 cents. Cost per wheat 
pound 10 cents. 

2 oranges. 5 pints water. 

1 lemon. 4 pounds sugar. 

Slice the oranges and lemon (including the peels) very thin. Let 
stand over night with the water. Put on stove next morning, boil one 
hour, let stand twenty-four hours. Then add the sugar, boil slowly two 
hours longer, and put in jelly tumblers. This amount should be boiled 
down until it will fill eight glasses. The marmalade keeps well and it 
is a good plan when oranges are cheap to make up a supply for the 
winter. 

Marmalade is nothing but sugar flavored with oranges, and 
represents scarcely any cost at all except the sugar. There 
is a sort of subconscious idea running in the back of our heads 
that sugar is an expensive food. Even though sugar has 
doubled in price since the war, it is still much cheaper than 
most foods, and in nine cases out of ten its increased use 
would cheapen the diet. 




380 


MACF AD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


The good old custom of making apple butter on farms 
where apples are cheap furnishes an inexpensive spread for 
bread that will reduce the dairy butter consumption. Sorghum 
and other varieties of molasses also cut down on the butter bill. 

Another type of spread for bread is soft cheeses. Some 
of these cost more than butter, but cottage cheese, made from 
skim milk and enriched with cream and oil, makes a spread 
both nutritious and inexpensive. Cheese can also be made of 
buttermilk. 

Heat buttermilk gradually to about 130 to 140 Fahrenheit. Allow 
it to cool, pour off most of the whey from the curd settled to the bot¬ 
tom, and strain out the rest. This cheese has hardly any fat, yet has 
a consistency suggestive of fat. 

Cottage cheese made from either skim or buttermilk may be sea¬ 
soned with salt only, or mixed with oil or butter or cream and various 
seasonings. Chopped olives or pimentos combined with cottage 
cheese enrich the flavor greatly. Cottage cheese can be used not only 
as a sandwich, but equally as well for the meaty part of a salad. 

Sweet Spreads Unsatisfying. —Where the diet does not 
contain much other fat, sweet spreads will not satisfy, for as 
the German experience in the war proved, men crave a certain 
amount of fat and refuse to feel well fed without it. The fol¬ 
lowing fat-containing butter substitutes may be used as spreads 
for bread. Some of them you may reject because they are 
not as tasty as butter, but they are all wholesome and econom¬ 
ical and if economy is imperative there is no reason why you 
need to continue to suffer poverty elsewhere merely to indulge 
in an inordinate butter appetite. 

The first of these is drippings so commonly used by the 
poorer classes in England. The drippings from fried or baked 
meats are very flavory and may be used as a butter substitute, 
both in cooking and as a spread for bread. The latter use 
will hardly be approved when there is company in the average 
American home, but the world food scarcity has forced some 
of us to serve foods we once considered as beneath our notice. 

Cotton-seed oil is too flat in flavor and too thin in body 
to be a suitable spread for bread. It is not so bad, however, 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


381 


for a hungry man as one might think. With a bit of salt, 
or still better, with a liberal amount of sugar, it is very palatable 
when eaten with good fresh bread. 

There are many grades of oleomargarine, the better ones 
of which are superior in flavor to the poorer grades of butter. 
Because of our pride, and the fact that we can afford to be 
extravagant, oleomargarine was formerly held in bad repute 
and a silly and unjust class legislation has levied a tax against 
its manufacture. The war has brought oleomargarine into 
better repute and whereas it formerly sold for not over one- 
half the price of butter, it now sells for three-fourths as much. 

There is now on the market a “nut margarine” made from 
churning cocoanut oil with cream. This sells for about the 
same price as cotton-seed oleo, and is excellent while fresh, 
but does not keep well. 

Vegetarian cookery brought forth many butter substitutes 
in the form of nut butters. The oil of nuts is fluid at room 
temperature, but the solid ingredients of the nut give certain 
firmness or body to the butter. Nut butters are excellent, but 
with the exception of peanut butter are more expensive than 
the dairy article. 

Peanut butter is one of the most economical foods on the 
market. It keeps well and should be purchased in bulk or in 
large sized packages, as the rate charged for it in the small 
glass containers is exorbitant. The objection to peanut butter 
is in its mechanical condition. The solid substances of peanut 
butter form a tenacious mass which does not spread well, and 
if eaten in chunks gums up the mouth like corner grocery 
ginger snaps. The consistency of peanut butter may be mate¬ 
rially improved by working it up with oil and water, or milk, 
or even plain water. The butter in this form will spread better 
and go farther and is more comfortable to eat. The manu¬ 
facturers would undoubtedly take advantage of this were it 
not for the fact that the butter will spoil when water is added. 
Mixed up in quantities sufficient for a few days only, peanut 
butter in this form is very excellent and most economical. 

The last group of butter substitutes which we highly recom- 




382 31ACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


mend are those in which gelatin is used to give body to the oil. 
Cook the gelatin with only one-half as much water (or milk) 
as is called for in making desserts. Gelatin may be cooked 
with milk in a double boiler. To the cooked gelatin while warm 
add the oils or butters to be used and whip with a fork as the 
gelatin begins to set. You can experiment freely with such 
combinations in various proportions. 

Do not overlook the necessary salt, for if you forget this 
you will reject the butter substitute for tastelessness when it is 
merely due to lack of salt. 

The adding of water to a butter substitute does not affect 
the economy except as it makes the oil contained go farther 
by giving us a larger bulk of material to spread on our bread. 
As a practical problem we should therefore judge the list 
that follows, both by the cost per pound and the cost per wheat 
pound. 



Price 

Price per 


Price 

Price per 


per lb. 

wheat lb. 


per lb. 

wheat lb. 

Beef drippings ... 

.$0.15 

$0.07 

Carrot marmalade _$0.08 

$0.11 

Molasses . 

.06 

.08 

Peanut butter . 

.18 

.11 

Cotton-seed oil_ 

.24 

.09 

Gelatin butter, 

oil one 


One-half each cotton¬ 


part, gelatin 

cooking 


seed oil and sugar.16 

.09 

milk one part 

.16 

.12 

Orange marmalade 

.08 

.10 

Oleomargarine 

.28 

.13 

Peanut butter, 

three 


Nut margarine 

.29 

.14 

parts, oil one 

part, 





water two parts. 

.13 

.10 





I have given this attention to the subject of butter sub¬ 
stitutes because the excessive price of butter makes many peo¬ 
ple feel they cannot afford it. I do not ignore that butter 
has a certain quality found in no substitute and that is the fat 
soluble vitamine. But this same vitamine is present in the 
milk and in green vegetables, so if these be abundantly used 
in the diet butter is not essential. The entire scheme of separat¬ 
ing butter from the milk is an inexcusable practice, since it 
results in the wasting of the skim-milk which contains food 
elements equally as important. By using your share of the 
cow’s product in its entirety and an ample supply of green 
vegetables, you can escape the system of robbeiy by which 
we pay for milk, but get only the butter, while the farm pigs 
get the milk. 













OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


383 


TEN RULES FOR FOOD ECONOMY 

1. First learn which are the most economical foods. 

2. Second, keep a monthly grocery account and see to it 
that the larger portion of your food is of the economical sort. 

3. Ihird, watch your daily menus and see to it that you 
plan dishes the chief ingredients of which are these economical 
foods. 

4. Be resourceful and try all manner of new economical 
dishes to find those that appeal to your palate; then adopt 
these as regular items of your bill-of-fare. 

5. Do not attempt to deny yourself entirely of the foods 
you like, as it will react and you will go back to extravagant 
habits. 

6. Find out by study and observation the least quantity 
of food that will keep up your normal weight and, first from 
deliberate effort and later from acquired habits, learn to eat 
just the proper quantity of food and that amount only—as 
a matter of thrift, patriotic decency and personal health and 
efficiency. 

7. Be economical in kitchen labor; two meals a day is 
enough for all but heavy laborers. A three-course dinner is 
enough for a millionaire. 

8. Serve all foods that will not keep till the next meal as 
one portion per serving, with no second helping. Let the 
individual who has appetite for more than is first served him 
fill up on bread and butter or other foods that can be provided 
in excess of the amount eaten without involving waste. Those 
who cannot fill up on bread and butter have no healthy, normal 
hunger, but merely a pampered appetite. 

9. Learn the new etiquette of the table which teaches 
that in the intelligent, cultured household just enough food 
should be prepared for the family and just enough served for 
the individual needs. Have a clean table and a clean plate 
at the end of the meal. 

10. Do not waste your time on schemes to utilize left¬ 
overs—use your brains in planning meals and have no 
leftovers. 




CHAPTER XVI 


MINERAL ELEMENTS IN FOOD. 


T HE composition of the human body as given by the 
physiological chemists contain fifteen chemical elements. 
These are present approximately in the following 
percentages: 


Oxygen . 

Carbohydrates 

Hydrogen 

Nitrogen . 

Calcium . 

Phorphorus .. 
Potassium ... 
Sulphur . 


65 per cent. 
18 
10 
3 
2 
1 

.35 

.25 


Chlorin ... 
Sodium ... 
Magnesium 

Iron . 

Iodine 
Flourine .. 
Silicon .... 


.22 per cent. 

.15 

.05 

.004 “ 

Trace 


The first four elements variously combined form the com¬ 
mon food substance known as carbohydrates, fats and protein. 
These are the organic or non-mineral elements. The remain¬ 
ing eleven elements are minerals or inorganic elements. When 
food materials are burned these minerals are left in the ash, 
though in the ash they do not exist as the same chemical com¬ 
binations as they do when combined with the organic material 
in food or in the body. 

Ash Content of Food. —The older school of food chem¬ 
istry left all these inorganic elements, or “ash” from the burn¬ 
ing of food samples grouped together in the tables of food com¬ 
position as “mineral salts” or “ash.” Such method of food 
analysis was very incomplete and uncertain and, as recent 
scientific progress has shown, such lumping together of chem¬ 
ical elements vitally important in nutrition failed to tell us the 
whole necessary truth. In a vague way the chemists realized 
that the ash content of food was of great importance and in 
some particular instances the specific purpose and use of these 
elements was known to the chemists. The followers of the 
natural school of dietetics, deriving their knowledge from 
practical observation of the effects of various diets, emphasized 
the supreme importance of the mineral elements in foods. 

A diet of artificial foods as white flour, polished rice, sugar, 



















OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


385 


glucose, fats and meat may contain correct proportions of car¬ 
bohydrates, fats and proteins, yet fail to properly nourish the 
body. On the other hand the natural foods such as milk, eggs, 
fruits, nuts, entire grain products, and particularly the leafy or 
salad vegetables, were observed to be highly beneficial in 
normal diet and particularly useful in the diet of children, and 
as corrective elements for those suffering from ill health due to 
the deficiencies of the more artificial and conventional diet. 

Of recent years not only has the testimony of the benefit of 
the such foods which are rich in the mineral elements been 
repeatedly demonstrated in practice but the laboratory investi¬ 
gations of the physiological and biological chemist have pro¬ 
duced an interesting and conclusive fund of knowledge which 
explains why such benefits have been attained. This knowl¬ 
edge not only teaches us the importance of the mineral content 
of food considered as a whole, but points out the particular 
physiological harm that may result from such deficiencies. 

Much of the past argument regarding food minerals has 
centered about the question of their availability to the human 
body in inorganic form. Because these mineral elements are 
found in nature or may be manufactured in the laboratory 
without the aid of the life processes of plants and animals, there 
was a general belief among the old school of medical scientists, 
that mineral elements might be supplied to the body in the 
form of inorganic or artificial salts. On the other hand, the 
dietitians belonging to the natural food school held that while 
the chemical elements of food minerals could exist in inorganic 
combinations, they were not available to the use of the human 
body. Neither of these early views was entirely correct. 

There are some mineral elements, as the sodium and chlorin 
of common salt, that can be utilized by the body in the simpler 
inorganic forms. But the more rare and hence more vitally 
important elements exist for the most part in complex combina¬ 
tion with the organic elements of food, hence deficiencies in 
such elements can not be made good by purely mineral or 
artificial products. 




386 MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Of the eleven mineral elements in the human body, iodine, 
flourine, silicon, exist in such small quantities that they can be 
chemically detected by qualitative analysis only, hence any 
detailed study of their functions is impractical. However, as 
these elements exist more abundantly in many plant tissues 
than in the human body it is not likely, with a varied diet sup¬ 
plying the other minerals, that any of these will be deficient, 
hence we need not consider them further in the present 
discussion. 

This leaves eight elements for further consideration. Two 
of these, sodium and chlorine, are the components of common 
salt and are available to the body in that simple form. With 
conventional man’s present custom of liberally salting his food 
there is no danger of these elements being deficient. In fact, 
salt requires consideration because of the possible ill effects that 
may come from the over eating of this common mineral. 

The carnivorous animal secures an ample quantity of salt 
from his diet, for flesh, and particularly blood, is distinctly 
salty. Many herbivorous animals, both in a wild and domestic 
state, crave salt. As this is practically the only case in nature 
in which animals seek food in a mineral form, scientists have 
searched to find some logical explanation of the phenomena. 
One view holds that sodium chloride (salt) is craved by animals 
existing on a vegetable diet because of the over abundance of 



potassium or potash 
salts in vegetable 


e ■ 


^ who recall its great 
importance to the 
fertilizer industry 
and the role played 
he in the world war by 


„ substances. That 
potash is a highly 
important element 
in the composition 
of plants will be 
recognized by those 


A 


Section of outer coverings of a grain of wheat 
(greatly magnified) showing nutritive portions of the 
grain destroyed In milling white flour. 











OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


387 


the isolation of the German potash mines. Potatoes are partic¬ 
ularly rich in potash, and if the chemists be correct that may be 
a reason why we crave salt upon potatoes. 

Cooking Destroys Salts. —Unfortunately our modern 
methods of life have so changed our diet from the normal that 
few people know what a natural diet is, and the result is they 
do not get in their food a sufficient supply of these natural salts 
to build up the body to the most perfect vigor. Cooking also 
removes much of the organized salts, and to complete the cook- 
ing processes satisfactorily and make the food taste as it should 
mineral salt must be added. Where foods are boiled and the 
natural salts are leached out into the w r ater and then poured 
away, as is so often the case, the foods do not contain the salts 
they should, and the body craves those elements in the foods of 
which cooking has robbed them. 

Hence, in the majority of cases, there is an unsatisfied feel¬ 
ing if salt is absent, which most people proceed to satisfy by a 
too liberal use of an artificial substitute for that of which 
Nature originally gave an abundant supply. This seems to me 
to be the most rational explanation of the universal desire for 
mineral salt. 

Common salt is unquestionably of supreme importance in 
the physiological processes. The adult human body normally 
contains about 100 grams, or one-fourth pound. The presence 
of salt in the body fluids is essential to the solution of protein. 
The relation of salt to the solution of protein may be clearly 
demonstrated with an experiment which any one can perform 
in the kitchen. Take a small quantity of the white of egg. 
Place it in a tumbler of water and the albumen will be precipi¬ 
tated showing a milky whiteness. If salt now be slowly added 
to the water, the albumen will presently be dissolved and the 
liquid become quite clear. Different concentrations of various 
salts effect the solubility of many proteins according to the 
strength of the salt solutions. The normal workings of the 
body process unquestionably depend upon the proper content 
not only of sodium chloride but of other mineral salts in the 
fluids of the body. 





388 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Should a perfectly salt free diet be fed to any person, death 
would be inevitable. But the essentiality of common salt in the 
diet does not justify its excessive use. When an excess is taken 
it is quickly excreted, but if the excess be too great it will 
result in the overstimulation of the digestive secretions and the 
interference of food assimilation. Excessive salt is also thought 
to have an unfavorable effect on protein metabolism. In the 
case of a long fast the salt excreted for the first ten days of 
fasting was fourteen grams, for the second ten days two grams, 
for the third ten days one-half gram. Thus between ten 
and twenty percent of the salt content of the body is rapidly 
excreted when we cease to take it in the food, while the 
remainder is husbanded very carefully. This would seem to 
indicate that we use too much salt. 

Salt in connection with flesh gives rise to scurvy, salt-rheum, 
kidney trouble and other cutaneous and constitutional dis¬ 
orders. Salt is the cause of inflammation under the breasts, in 
the armpits and under the nose. 

Those who habitually live as near to the natural diet as pos¬ 
sible experience great discomfort from thirst if what would be 
regarded as an ordinary supply of salt meat or salt fish is given 
them at a meal. It should need no argument to prove that the 
excessive thirst produced is Nature’s protest against a too 
liberal use of salty food. 

Salt, in liberal quantities, as used frequently, is as directly 
blinding to the sense of taste as the direct rays of the sun 
shining in the eyes are blinding to the sense of sight. After a 
continued liberal use of salt the sense of taste becomes so 
blunted to the natural and finer flavors of food that nothing 
“tastes good” unless salted to the requirements of the eater. 

Hence I would recommend a reasonable caution in the use 
of mineral salt. Do not allow the taste buds to become so 
blunted that foods are not satisfactory to you unless heavily 
salted. Use enough to satisfy the demands of a reasonably 
normal appetite and there will then be little danger of your 
being injured by its over use. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


389 


Potassium.— The potassium salts are chemically similar to 
those of sodium, the most abundant form being potassium 
chloride. This we do not need to add to the food for the reason 
that it is abundant in all natural diets and therefore there is no 
danger of potassium deficiency where other mineral essentials 
of the food are provided for. 

Sulphur.— Sulphur is distinct from the elements just con¬ 
sidered, in that food sulphur is taken wholly in an organic 
combination. Mineral sulphur has no place in the diet and 
when administered as a drug passes through the alimentary 
canal as an entirely foreign substance. Sulphur, while a min¬ 
eral, exists in food in combination with the nitrogen of protein, 
and in that sense may be considered as part of the organic 
foods. The amount of sulphur varies slightly with the different 
forms of protein, but on the average proteins contain about 
one per cent of sulphur. The sulphur while taken into the body 
and utilized in organic compounds is reduced in the process of 
metabolism to inorganic forms and is eliminated chiefly through 
the kidneys as mineral sulphates. 

As proof that the sulphur in the body exists as a constit¬ 
uent of protein, and not in the simpler forms, we note that 
in the case of fasting, sulphur is excreted from the body at a 
rate proportionate to the excretion of .nitrogen, both resulting 
from the destruction of the protein compounds. In the process 



Fiaure A, starch granules of rice; figure B, starch granules of wheat. Drawings 
a show comparative formation and size. 








390 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


of this destruction sulphuric acid is developed and must be neu¬ 
tralized into sulphur salts or sulphates. This aspect of the 
metabolism of sulphur will be considered again under the ques¬ 
tion of the acidity and alkalinity of the fluids of the body. As 
a practical dietetic consideration, sulphur need not be consid¬ 
ered separately from the question of the protein because it will 
vary in direct proportion and if the protein needs are taken 
care of, the needs for sulphur will be automatically regulated. 

Sulphur also appears in the decomposition of proteins in 
the intestinal tract giving rise to organic sulphates and to 
hydrogen sulphide. 

Phosphorus. —The utilization of phosphorus in the phys¬ 
iological processes is highly complex. It enters into the com¬ 
position of the cell nucleus and all cellular structure. Com¬ 
bined with calcium, it forms the chief mineral substance of the 
bones. It is a highly important element of milk. It exists in 
the sexual secretions and in the nerves and brain. From the 
early discovery of the presence of phosphorus in the brain came 
the saying of the scientists, “No phosphorus, no thought”; and 
from this same discovery came also the erroneous impression 
that fish was a brain food. 

Functionally, phosphorus is involved in the process of cell 
multiplication, in the action of digestive and other enzymes, in 
the neutrality of the blood and body fluids, in the conduct of 
nerve stimuke, in the maintenance of osmotic pressure, sur¬ 
face tension and the circulation of body fluids, with the multi¬ 
plication of cells and with the processes of absorption and 
secretion. 

In fasting, phosphorus is secreted at a steady rate showing 
that it is part of the living tissue being metabolized and not 
merely an excess of salt, as is the sodium chloride. The rate of 
phosphorus secretion in fasting also reveals the fact that bone 
tissue is being actually metabolized. The distribution of phos¬ 
phorus in the body is that of 600 parts in the skeleton, 56 in the 
muscles and 5 in the brain and nerves. The rate of phosphorus 
secretion in fasting is such that all the phosphorus excreted 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


391 


could not possibly be derived elsewhere than from the phos¬ 
phorus in the bones. Hence in fasting, or when phosphorus is 
absent from the diet, the store in the bones is drawn upon for 
other physiological needs, in which service the phosphorus is 
rendered valueless for further body use, hence it is excreted. 

It has been shown that milk cows and nursing mothers, on 
diets deficient in phosphorus, draw upon the supply in the 
bones, with a resulting weakness of the skeleton. Pigs at the 
Kansas Experiment Station were fed a diet deficient in mineral 
ash, and their bones were found to be only one-half as strong as 
those in normally developed swine. 

In the complete diet this element exists in three organic 
forms, besides the mineral form of phosphorus. The first of 
these is the phosphorus-containing proteins, notably milk, 
casein, and ovovitellin of egg yolk. Phosphorous proteins exist 
in the nucleii of all cells, hence in the proteins of all flesh 
foods. 

The second kind of organic phosphorus is that of phos- 
phorized fats, chief of which is lecithin, a highly important 
substance found abundantly in the brain and in the yolk of 
eggs. 

Phosphorus also exists in food in combination with carbo¬ 
hydrates. A very surprising recent chemical discovery is that 
phosphorus in a very small quantity is an essential element in 
starch. 

Experimentation leads us to the belief that phosphorus for 
bone growth can be absorbed from the simpler mineral forms, 
but for other bodily uses the phosphorus must be derived from 
the more highly organized forms. As evidence of this we find 
that the mineral phosphorus in the milk of different species is 
in proportion to the rate of growth of the young, and there¬ 
fore cow’s milk is richer in pure phosphorus than human milk, 
but there is as much phosphorus combined with fat in the form 
of lecithin in the human milk as there is in the milk of the cow. 
This may be one of the reasons why cow’s milk, when modified, 
is still not as perfect a food for the human infant as the 
mother’s milk. 

Vol. 1—25 




392 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


A number of experiments have been conducted in an effort 
to solve this problem of the comparative dietetic worth of food 
phosphorus in organic and inorganic forms. The results are 
somewhat contradictory and the scientists are not fully agreed 
in the matter. Much of the experimental evidence indicates the 
distinct superiority of the organic forms of food phosphorus, 
while in no cases does the pure mineral salt show any advantage. 
The safe course, therefore, is to secure a high phosphorus con¬ 
tent in its organic combinations in natural foods. 

Efforts to exploit mineral salts as dietetic accessories are 
frequent not only in human medicine but in the nutrition of 
domestic animals. A few years ago a grit for chickens com¬ 
posed of rock phosphates was very much advertised. Careful 
tests by experiment stations proved that such phosphorus rock 
was of no more value to the chickens than any other form of 
gritty substance, which the chicken uses for grinding food in 
the gizzard, and that the rock phosphate would not supply the 
food phosphorus which the poultryman usually secures from 
ground bones. 

Like sulphur, phosphorus is broken down in the vital proc¬ 
esses and is excreted from the body in the form of simple min¬ 
eral phosphates. The amount of phosphorus needed in human 
nutrition is at least a gram per day. A study of many diets 
reveals that the phosphorus content is likely to be below this 
minimum need particularly when the diet is composed largly 
of white flour, polished rice, sugar and other demineralized 
foods. The safest correctives of the phosphorus-lacking diet is 
milk and eggs. 

The following table gives the amount of phosphorus, cal¬ 
cium and iron in selected foods that are particularly rich or 
particularly deficient in these three most essential minerals. 
The amounts are not given per pound of the food but for 2,500 
calories (1.5 wheat pounds), which is the food requirement of a 
man for a day. This means that if a man lived wholly on lean 
beef he would secure five times as much phosphorus as needed, 
but would secure but one-third the necessary calcium. While if 
he lived on oranges, he would secure but one-tenth the phos- 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


393 


phorus needed but four times more calcium than the body 
requires, etc. 

QUANTITY OF ESSENTIAL MINERALS SUPPLIED BY 2500 
CALORIES OF VARIOUS FOODS. 



Grams of 

Grams of 

Milligrams of 


Phosphorus 

Calcium 

Iron 

Spinach . 

.. 5.40 

6.54 

375 

Lettuce . 

. 4.72 

4.38 

156 

Lean beef . 

. 4.21 

.15 

81 

Cheese . 

. 4.02 

5.40 

9 

Beans . 

. 3.61 

1.17 

49 

Milk . 

. 3.34 

4.35 

8 

Eggs . 

. 3.58 

1.35 

47 

Turnips . 

. 3.12 

3.97 

32 

Whole wheat . 

. 3.34 

.33 

35 

Carrots . 

. 2.51 

2.80 

42 

Oatmeal . 

. 2.38 

.41 

21 

Cabbage . 

. 2.34 

3.55 

86 

Beets . 

. 2.13 

1.60 

32 

Peanuts . 

. 1.93 

.33 

9 

Almonds . 

. 1.78 

.89 

15 

Potatoes . 

. 1.71 

.43 

35 

Walnuts . 

. 1.34 

.33 

7 

Oranges . 

. 1.06 

2.17 

10 

Prunes . 

.83 

.43 

25 

Bananas . 

.71 

.22 

15 

Polished rice . 

.68 

.03 

5 

White flour . 

.61 

.15 

12 

Apples . 

.55 

.30 

8 


Calcium and Magnesium.— Calcium and magnesium are 
chemical elements of somewhat similar properties. Both occur 
combined with phosphorus in the bones. Egg shells are com¬ 
posed of calcium carbonate, and the similarity to magnesium is 
revealed by the fact that hens fed a diet deficient in calcium but 
rich in magnesium will lay eggs with the shells composed of 
magnesium carbonate. But in more complex physiological 
needs, even these related elements cannot be so readily substi¬ 
tuted for each other. 

The calcium salts in the blood are intimately related to its 
power of coagulation. The balance between calcium salts on 
the one hand and those of sodium potassium on the other is 
thought to be the chemical basis of the control of the heart beat. 
The calcium salts seem to stimulate the contraction of the 
muscles, and an excess of calcium causes what is known as 
calcium rigor of the heart. This statement will show the high 
importance of the mineral salts in sustaining and regulating the 
life processes and the actual dangers of possible deficiencies— 



























394 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


for while the body may find ways to rid itself of an over supply, 
if the elements are not present in the diet it cannot be created 
in the body if there is an under supply. 

As a practical dietetic problem magnesium needs no 
separate consideration because the quantity required is rela¬ 
tively small and because it is usually associated with calcium in 
such quantities that if the calcium supply be sufficient the needs 
for magnesium will be taken care of. 

The total weight of calcium in the body is the greatest of 
any mineral, and, like phosphorus, it is unevenly distributed, 
being by far the most abundant in the bones. Calcium is also 
quite irregularly distributed in foods, and hence an ill selected 
diet creates a danger of a calcium shortage. A study of the 
usual diets of various groups of people indicates that calcium is 
the food element most frequently deficient. Many of the cases 
of malnutrition, especially among children, that were formerly 
considered to be due to a lack in protein are now known to be 
caused by a lack of calcium. As in the case of phosphorus, milk 
so rich in these two elements essential to bone growth, is the 
article to be first relied upon in guaranteeing against calcium 
deficiency. 

Meat, when free from bones, is not sufficiently rich in 
calcium to nourish the young of carnivorous animals. The 
failure of lions to bring forth healthy young in captivity has 
been found to be due to the habit of feeding them upon meat 
from which the bones have been removed. Puppies fed pure 
meat and fat have suffered a check in their growth which has 
been remedied by giving them bones to gnaw. Pigeons fed 
food deficient in calcium give an outward appearance of main¬ 
taining health, but upon being killed and examined it was 
found that the bones had suffered degeneration even to the 
extent of the perforation of the skull. 

Earlier scientific investigators failed to realize the full 
extent of the calcium needs of the body, due to the fact that 
they assumed that all of the calcium was excreted by way of 
the kidneys and that the calcium in the feces was an indication 
that much calcium in the food was not digested. It has now 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


395 


been discovered that the calcium in the food is absorbed and 
again excreted by way of the intestines, hence the erroneous 
reasoning which led to underestimating the calcium needs. The 
body requires at least one-half gram of calcium per day, and a 
larger amount is a safe estimate because there is greater danger 
from deficiency and little danger from a moderate excess. 

Growing boys from six to ten years of age were found to 
accumulate calcium in the body from the rate of four-tenths 
grams per day, which does not account for that required in the 
various physiological processes and again excreted. An ample 
calcium supply is highly essential to the pregnant and nursing 
mother, for if either phosphorus or calcium be lacking in the 
diet the supply in the bones will be drawn upon to meet the 
demands of milk secretions. 

Iron. —Of all those chemical elements which exist in the 
body in measurable quantity iron is the rarest. The total quan¬ 
tity in the human body is hardly more than one-tenth of an 
ounce, or but one part in 25,000 of the weight of the body. But 
small as is this quantity, it is absolutely necessary to life. Iron 
in highly organic combination is essential to the composition of 
the hemoglobin of the red blood corpuscles, the substance which 
gives them their peculiar power to carry oxygen from the lungs 
to the tissues. Lack of iron produces anemia, a very prevalent 
disease symptom due to the decrease in the red corpuscles. 

This function of iron has been known to the medical world 
for many years, and mineral iron in inorganic form was the 
classic prescription for the cure of anemia. The modern 
biological chemists have attempted to investigate this problem 
with a view of determining whether such mineral iron was 
effective or whether its use was merely a fallacy reasoned from 
the chemical knowledge of the presence of iron in the blood 
corpuscles. As in the case of the phosphorus problem, much 
argument has been waged as to the conclusion to be drawn 
from this experimentation. Formerly favorable results have 
been reported from the use of medicinal iron, but the results 
were not conclusive. The modern view seems to be that the 
mineral iron is not available for this highly important physi- 




396 MACF AD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ological function, and that such favorable results as have 
been reported from its use were either due to other causes or 
that the normal usefulness of mineral iron was merely to spare 
in some way the destruction of the true food iron. For instance, 
iron combines with hydrogen sulphide in the intestines, and 
perhaps the presence of mineral iron may in this manner pre¬ 
vent undue destruction of the true food irpn. 

The best scientific opinion today concedes that with iron, as 
with other highly complex mineral food substances, it is a dan¬ 
gerous expedient to attempt to rely on the artificial products of 
the chemist, as substitutes for the natural organic combination 
of minerals with food substances evolved in plant life, from 
which source the human and the animal body under natural 
conditions secured the mineral elements of nutrition. 

Food iron is absorbed from the small intestines and deposited 
in the pancreas, liver and marrow of the bones, where the red 
blood corpuscles are formed. The minimum body requirement 
of iron is about ten milograms a day, which in a normal diet 
furnishes iron in about the same proportion that it is present in 
milk. Compared with human needs, iron is more rare in milk 
than are other essential food minerals. The probable explana¬ 
tion is that the iron of milk exists in a chemical form highly 
adapted for physiological use without waste, whereas iron in 
other food substances may be only partly available to the 
physiological needs. The shortage of iron in milk is explained 
by some scientists by the reputed presence of a store of iron in 
the body of the child at birth. It is stated that the young of 
such animals as have short nursing periods show no such store 
of organic iron. While this theory does not seem altogether 
plausible, the fact is clearly established that the iron content of 
milk is no more than a safe minimum, and that may also have a 
practical bearing on the poor nutritive value of a diet for the 
human infant that consists in diluted cow’s milk or diet of milk 
supplemented only with cereal substance and sugar. The use 
of fruit and vegetable juices to supplement such artificial feed¬ 
ing of children is found in practice to prove a safeguard against 
malnutrition, which fact may be related to this problem of the 
supply of organic iron. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


397 


The iron content of meat is chiefly in the blood contained 
in the meat tissues. Moreover, it is doubtful if this eating of 
the spent blood corpuscles of other animals gives a suitable 
supply of iron for forming new blood corpuscles. 

Wheat is robbed of its iron supply in the milling of white 
flour, which contains only one-sixth as much iron as whole 
wheat. In a carefully conducted experiment two groups of 
young rats were fed white bread and bran bread. The rats fed 
bran bread gained about four times as much in weight as the 
white bread rats. They were killed and an estimate made of the 
red blood corpuscles. Only two-thirds as many of these oxygen¬ 
bearing messengers were found in the white bread rats as were 
found in their bran bread brothers. 

Acidity and Alkalinity. —Acidosis is an abnormal condi¬ 
tion of the body due to a reduction of the normal alkalinity of 
the blood and body fluids. It results, among other things, in a 
strongly acid urine and a failure to absorb uric acid. This 
problem of the balance of acids and alkalies in the human body 
is a very complex one, the full theoretical discussion of which 
cannot be given here. The condition of acidosis may be tem¬ 
porarily and artificially corrected by the administration of com¬ 
mon soda. But this, like many medical measures, is in no sense 
a true and permanent remedy. Soda may be used, however, in 
diagnosis of this abnormal condition. The urine is normally 
slightly acid, but a dose of from five to ten grams of soda will 
result in causing it to give an alkaline reaction to litmus paper. 
But if the blood be abnormally acid, this amount of soda will 
fail to turn the litmus paper blue and a condition is indicated 
which can only be permanently remedied by a correctly 
balanced diet. 

Many chemical substances contribute to the total contents 
of acid and alkaline elements of the blood. The absorbed car¬ 
bon dioxide is slightly acid, while the majority of the mineral 
salts in the blood are alkaline. The true balance gives a mildly 
alkaline reaction, but the normal blood condition is so near the 
marginal line of neutrality that the failure of the alkaline 
yielding salts or an increase of foods that form acids in their 




398 MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


metabolism will result in an increase of the acid elements. 
When body proteins are finally destroyed in the various vital 
processes, the sulphur content in them is oxydized to the highly 
powerful sulphuric acid. If this acid remained unneutralized 
it would prove exceedingly poisonous and destructive to cellular 
life. In practice sulphuric acid never exists in the body as such 
in any measurable quantity, but it is constantly being formed 
and as quickly being neutralized by the alkaline minerals. 

Phosphorus plays an important part in this neutralization 
of the sulphuric acid. But these alkaline salts in neutralizing 
the acid lose their alkalinity, hence the danger of acidosis when 
there is too much acid to be taken care of. As a chief source of 
the acid is from protein, particularly meat proteins—neither 
meats, fats, sugars, or starches, bear alkaline salts—the natural 
correctives are the vegetables, rich in the alkaline salts. 

The above statements in reference to the danger of acidosis 
bears no relation to such foods as acid fruits, or sour milk. 
These acids are composed of oxygen, hydrogen and carbon and 
are much more closely related to fruit sugars than they are to 
the mineral acids. These purely organic acid fruits do not 
appear in the blood as acids at all, but are neutralized in diges¬ 
tion and assimilated and burned in the body much as are sugar, 
starches and other neutral foods. 




CHAPTER XVII 


VITAMINES—THE BIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF 
FOOD. 

T HE term “vitamine” was originated by Funk, an English 
scientist, about 1912. He was investigating the 
problem of beri-beri, the deficiency disease caused by 
a diet of polished rice or grains of similar food properties. 
Other investigators had learned that a similar disease could be 
caused by a polished rice diet fed to pigeons. They had also 
observed that the disease could be cured as in man, by feeding 
whole rice or other natural food substances. The English 
scientist attempted to isolate and analyze the chemical constit¬ 
uents of the missing food essential in the rice germ, or bran. 
He was not successful in determining the chemical composition 
of this mysterious substance, but he learned many of its proper¬ 
ties, and that it existed in very minute quantities and was not a 
mineral salt. He termed the mysterious substance a “vitamine” 
and conceived the theory that vitamines were specific sub¬ 
stances in food, the absence of which would cause specific dis¬ 
eases. The expectations of this investigator were that scurvy, 
pellagra, rickets and perhaps other diseases known to be caused 
by a deficient diet could be cured by the specific “vitamine” or 
missing food element, should it be discovered. 

This theory that each food deficiency disease has its par¬ 
ticular preventive vitamine has not been established by later 
investigations. But like many erroneous theories, the vitamine 
idea has proved of great importance in the stimulation of 
scientific research. Moreover, the publication of such scientific 
researches together with the use of the very suggestive term 
vitamine, turned the popular imagination toward the broad 
and general problem of the dangers of an artificial, denatured 
or deficient diet. 

Animal Experimentation.— In this eager search for 
food vitamines the scientists have adopted a method of research 
comparatively new to food problems. It is that of animal 
experimentation or biological testing of foods as distinct from 


400 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the older method of chemical analysis. Animals, particularly 
small mammals that are easily kept in laboratories, such as 
guinea pigs, white rats and mice, had been extensively used by 
the bacteriologist in food experimentation as well as in testing 
the strength and effect of drugs, particularly those which could 
not be satisfactorily analyzed by chemical methods. 

In this chapter will be given not only the facts regarding 
the unidentified food essentials popularly termed vitamines, but 
also a general review of methods and results achieved by this 
school of biological chemists who have investigated food prob¬ 
lems by the method of animal experimentation. The general 
plan followed in such investigations is that of feeding a diet 
of foods the exact chemical properties of which were known, 
and to which may be added one or more foods the particular 
effects and properties of which the investigator wishes to 
discover. 

There is considerable rivalry between this school of food 
experimenters and the old school of chemists, who confined 
food investigations to purely chemical analysis. However, it 
should be noted that it w r as the achievements of chemical science 
which enabled such diets composed of selected pure food 
elements to be prepared, which has made possible the biological 
researches. 

Reference has already been made, in the chapters on pro¬ 
tein and mineral salts, to results obtained with animal experi¬ 
mentation. Many of the earlier investigations in this field were 
with domestic animals and were conducted for the purpose of 
gaining information on animal nutrition. At the University 
of Wisconsin cows were fed diets derived wholly from the corn 
plant and compared with other cows fed wholly from wheat 
and from oats, in each case the food including not only grain 
but the fodder or straw. The cows Were able to live on all 
three diets, though the corn-fed animals were the more thrifty. 
But particularly interesting were the results in the bearing of 
the young. The calves of corn-fed cows were healthy and 
normal, while the wheat-fed cows gave birth to their young 
prematurely, and the young were either born dead or died 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


401 


within a few hours. Oat-fed cows gave birth to weak calves, 
many of which died at an early date. The corn-fed cows pro¬ 
duced nearly three times as much milk as the wheat-fed 
animals. 

All this was exceedingly interesting and clearly demon¬ 
strated the insufficiency of the old food standards which were 
content to prescribe certain proportions of fats, carbohydrates 
and protein. The rations from the corn, wheat and oat plant 
had all answered the older chemical food standards. Here was 
a mystery that escaped the chemists. Here also was evidence 
that if food problems were to be solved, it was not sufficient to 
merely conduct experimentation for a few weeks or months 
with adult animals or even with the growing young, for the 
significant deficiencies were only revealed with the process of 
reproduction. The advantage of conducting such researches 
with an animal of brief generations, like the rat, is obvious. 
Moreover the rat is by nature omnivorous, hence the presump¬ 
tion that his dietetic needs are more nearly akin to man’s than 
to those of a cow or dog. 

It should be remarked at this point that the biological 
method of research has emphasized the fact that the funda¬ 
mental chemical laws of nutrition apply pretty generally to all 
species, the chief differences between various species being in 
the mechanical or physical differences in the diet and the con¬ 
sequent adaptation of the digestive organs to various degrees 
of food bulkiness. Herbivorous animals have large digestive 
tracts for the digestion of bulky foods. Carnivorous animals 
occupy the other extreme, while omnivorous animals are inter¬ 
mediate. Some differences also exist as to the proportions of 
various food elements required, particularly as determined by 
the rate of growth of the young. But the essentiality of a par¬ 
ticular element and the effects of its absence on the organism 
seems to apply generally to all warm-blooded species, and 
certainly to all mammals. Hence, while we cannot look upon 
experiments with pigeons or rats as absolutely applicable to 
the hmnan species, we must accept the view that fundamental 
laws can he discovered in this manner. Experimentation re- 




402 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


quiring feeding for a complete generation or for several gen¬ 
erations when applied to humans would involve insurmountable 
difficulties. 

Discoveries by McCullom. —The experiment in feeding 
cows, above referred to, led E. V. McCullom to undertake 
exhaustive experiments in systematic biological feeding tests 
that have resulted in materially furthering the world’s knowl¬ 
edge of the science of nutrition. His first discovery that led to 
important results was that rats would not thrive on a diet of 
purified foodstuffs, though it included ample skim milk pro¬ 
tein and mineral salts; but that normal health and growth could 
be secured if a small amount of butter was added to the diet. 
Since the rats were already getting ample fat from vegetable 
sources it was evident that it was not the added fat of the butter 
but some unknown substance existing in the butter in small 
amounts. The view that this newly discovered food essential 
Was some material dissolved in fat was further proved by the 
fact that egg yolk was found to be efficient in the same way as 
the fat of butter; lard and vegetable oils failed utterly to sup¬ 
port growth. It was thus proved that all fats were not of 
equal dietetic value, although the chemists had always reckoned 
them so. 

The first impression was that this unknown food essential 
or vitamine was the same as that discovered by Funk in the 
germ and bran of rice. But the diet upon which the rats were 
first fed and which was completed by the addition of butter fat 
was later found to contain the water soluble vitamine as an 
impurity in the milk sugar, for when the sugar was more care¬ 
fully refined it was then found necessary to add the water 
soluble vitamine also before the diet would sustain life and 
growth. A further series of careful experiments revealed that 
there were two food essentials or vitamines of unknown com¬ 
position, one of which was soluble in water and one of which 
was soluble in fat. Rejecting the term “vitamine” McCullom 
named these essential elements “water soluble A” and “fat 
soluble B.” A mixture of refined foods containing carbohy¬ 
drates, proteins, ordinary fats and mineral salts will not support 





Some of the raw breads that are made from the whole grain of the wheat. First 
dish to the left, raw flaked wheat; second, round cakes of raw bread; third, another 
form of raw bread; fourth, a variety of raw bread largely composed of bran, especially 
valuable for remedying sluggishness of the bowels. 



Examples of the delicious bread made from the whole meal of the wheat. Note its 
substantial appearance and rich brown color. 



The banana and cocoanut constitute two extremely important factors in the nut 

and fruit diet. 


403 












OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


405 


growth unless both of these vitamine food essentials are 
present. 

The original vitamine theory that held that each deficiency 
disease was caused by the absence of a particular vitamine was 
thus disproven, as all such diseases were found to be curable by 
diets containing, in addition to ordinary fat, carbohydrates, 
suitable mixtures of protein, and salts, the water soluble 
vitamine, first discovered by Funk in rice polishings, and the 
fat soluble, first discovered by McCullom in butter fat. 

Since a diet may be deficient in the quantity of protein, car¬ 
bohydrates or fats, and since it also may be deficient in the 
quality of proteins or in the quality or quantity of any of 
several mineral salts, and lastly in the quantity of either of 
the two vitamines, we readily see that the deficiencies in one or 
more of these varied essentials may cause various symptoms 
and diseases of mal-nutrition. The complexity of the problem 
seems to permit of a sufficient explanation of the numerous 
manifestations of food de¬ 
ficiency that have been 
observed. 

A further important 
discovery made by Mc¬ 
Cullom relates to the 
value of grain or seeds in 
nutrition. He found, 
with numerous experi¬ 
ments, that no single 
grain or combinations of 
grains was sufficient to 
sustain normal growth in 
young rats. Further 
search of natural habits 
of animals and the rec¬ 
ords of feeding tests re¬ 
vealed the fact that no 
warm-blooded animals in 
nature or in the experi- 



A GRAIN OF WHEAT. 


Diagram of cross section of a grain of wheat 
of the Purple Straw type, showing the loca¬ 
tion of the five arbitrary “concentric” zones or 
layers of flour removed by hand. The “core’ is 
shown white, and each successive zone is shown 
in a darker shade, the outermost zone being rep¬ 
resented black. Outside the zones the bran is 
represented as a narrow white layer. The five 
zones are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and are suc- 
cessivel” thinner toward the outside of the 
grain. The percentages of gluten found in the 
flour are marked on each zone. Zone 1, 7.4 per 
cent; zone 2, 8.6 per cent; zone 3, 9.6 per cent; 
zone 4, 13.9 per cent; zone 5, 16.5 per cent. The 
diagram is drawn to scale. 








406 


MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


mental laboratory derived complete nutrition from seeds 
alone. Even seed-eating birds add insects, green leaves and 
sprouts and minerals taken in the form of “grit,” to their 
diet. 

Artificially milled and refined grain product were found to 
be deficient in the water soluble vitamine, but this deficiency is 
remedied when the whole grain is utilized. Most whole grains 
contain some of the fat soluble vitamine, though not enough for 
complete nourishment. Whole grains are therefore a far bet¬ 
ter source of nutrition than the denatured milled product. 
Pigeons when fed white flour bread died more quickly than 
those kept on an absolute fast. White flour is not a poison, but 
it is lacking in many food essentials. The birds fed the white 
flour starved to death for these essentials the more quickly 
because the added burden of digesting and metabolizing the 
white flour used up the bodily store of salts and vitamines. 
The fasting birds, lived longer because the store of these ele¬ 
ments was conserved. This experiment has been cited as a 
striking proof of the superiority of the whole wheat and the 
deficiency of white flour. But the new fact pointed out by 
McCullom is that the pigeon fed whole wheat will also succumb 
in the course of time, because even the whole grain, though 
vastly superior to the denatured product, is not a complete 
food. Wheat, he maintains, like other grains and seeds, has an 
insufficient quantity of the fat soluble vitamine and is also 
deficient in mineral salts, particularly calcium. Both of these 
faults are remedied by the addition of sufficient milk to the 
diet, as whole milk contains an ample quantity of calcium as 
well as both kinds of vitamines. 

From McCullom’s viewpoint, therefore, the statement that 
whole wheat bread is a complete food is incorrect, although his 
experiments show its food value is very much higher than 
white flour products even when these be combined with sugar, 
fats and meat. 

By investigations of the relative value of natural foods 
McCullom discovered that the addition of any sort of edible 
leaves to a diet of grains or meat, or grain and meat, greatly 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


407 


increased the growth sustaining power. A diet of sixty per¬ 
cent of any seed or grain with forty percent of alfalfa leaf flour 
was found to be greatly superior to any possible diet that could 
be made solely of grains, legumes, or other seeds. When the 
diet was composed of fifty percent corn, thirty percent alfalfa 
leaves and twenty percent peas, the experimental rats were able 
to complete their growth and reproduce their kind for several 
generations. This diet for the rat was the best diet of wholly 
vegetable origin discovered by McCullom. While the rats 
lived and reproduced upon it, they did not reach a maximum 
efficiency of growth and vitality. Out of many hundreds of 
vegetarian diets tried, none were found that would nourish the 
rat as completely as a diet including some foods of animal 
origin, particularly those diets that included milk. 

Essential “Protective Foods." —The same fact had been 
found to be true in the nutritive of pigs, which like rats are 
considered omnivorous in their habits. The statement applies 
equally to chickens and ducks. With all these domestic ani¬ 
mals more profitable growth can be secured if some foods of 
animal origin are given, and with all of them the most efficient 
of all animal foods is milk. It is interesting to note that in all 
these species where animal foods are not available, the addition 
of leafy foods is a great help towards perfect nutrition. The 
practical observations of animal feeders bear out McCullom’s 
contention of the superior value of milk and green leaves as the 
essential “protective foods.” The addition of milk to a diet 
of grains makes possible growth and reproduction in all these 
species, and the same principle undoubtedly applies to man. 
Where milk is not available the best substitute is leafy foods. 
Thus we can explain the nutrition of the people of India, China 
and Japan in whose diets milk has small place, for these 
people use ample quantities of green vegetables. In practical 
application the use of both milk and green vegetables is found 
in animal feeding to give superior results to the use of either 
alone and the same conclusion we may safely apply to mankind. 

McCullom points out the remarkable fact that these highly 
important discoveries in food science were utterly ignored by 




408 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the merely chemical consideration of foods as carbohydrates, 
proteins and fats, etc. He advises that practical dietetics be 
taught by grouping foods, not according to the purpose of the 
food in the economy of the plant or animal from which it is 
derived. 

By this system milk unquestionably deserves a distinct 
place as a food of the highest order. Its function in nature is 
that of a food for the young mammal. No other food product 
used by man has such a complete natural function. The 
nearest approach is that of eggs, which are slightly inferior to 
milk for the following reasons: They contain no carbohy¬ 
drates, as the chick growing within the shell needs little energy 
because it is inactive. Secondly, the edible portion of the egg 
is more deficient in calcium, as the chick obtains a portion of 
this element required for bone growth by dissolving the calcium 
carbonate from the egg shell. Lastly, the chick, not being a 
mammal, may on general principles be considered less closely 
akin in its nutritive needs to the human kind, than is the calf. 

The second food group in McCullom’s list is the leafy 
vegetables. Ample experimentation has proved leafy foods to 
contain the vitamines and minerals so likely to be deficient in 
the grain and meat products of a conventional diet. 

The third food group in this system is that of seeds or 
grains. The place of the seed in nature is that of a storehouse 
of food energy, and this function explains why the seed is rich 
in carbohydrates, as in the case of grains, or in fats, as in the 
case of nuts and many other seeds. The seeds, therefore, can 
supply in economical form the energy requirements of man, 
but they must be supplemented by other foods rich in the lack¬ 
ing essentials. The bulk of the seed kernel is in the endosperm, 
which is rich either in starch or in oil. This portion of the seed 
is merely a storehouse of energy and is not composed of living 
cells containing the vitally active protoplasm. But the bran 
and germ of seeds is composed of cells and is a living portion 
of the plant, hence the use of whole grains is advantageous in 
the same way as is the use of leafy foods. White flour, polished 
rice, degerminated corn meal, vegetable oil or extracted sugar 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


409 


are all derived from the plant’s surplus store of food energy. 
None of these foods, nor any combination of them, is sufficient 
to support growth and reproduction. The use of the whole 
grain or product which contain the whole of these concentrated 
energy foods are much less dangerous than denatured foods, 
but even the use of these whole grain foods is not sufficient for 
the maximum efficiency in growth and nutrition unless supple¬ 
mented by other foods. 

Milk, eggs and green vegetables used in the diet are the 
surest means of avoiding food deficiencies. With an ample 
use of these highly enriched and protective foods even a diet of 
denatured starches, oils and sugars may become safe. The 
logical and economical plan to follow is to use the grain and 
seed products in their natural and entire state and to add also 
the milk and greens. With such a diet the danger of food 
deficiency is indeed remote. 

We have yet to consider certain further groups. Most 
vegetables, other than leafy greens, are tubers, roots or the 
thickened leaf bases, as in the case of cabbages, onions, chard 
and celery. Like seeds, the use of the roots and tubers in 
nature is that of a storehouse bf energy for the next plant 
generation. This class of vegetables occupies an intermediate 
place in dietary value between leaves and seeds. If the vege¬ 
table is used in its entirety as in the case of potatoes, when the 
skin is eaten also, the value is likely to be superior to the 
grains. But if the raw potato be peeled with a knife, or if the 
sugar alone be extracted from the beet, we see again the de¬ 
naturing process of extracting the energy food and discarding 
the vital cellular elements. Vegetables may also be “dena¬ 
tured” by the custom of boiling them and discarding the water, 
for many of the valuable elements are thus dissolved and 
wasted. 

Many so-called vegetables, such as melons and tomatoes, 
are in truth fruit. Fruits may be given a dietary rank just 
below that of leaves. They are notably rich in minerals and 
presumably in vitamines, though at this writing they have not 
been experimentally tested for these elements. The chief value 

Vol. 1—26 




410 MACE AD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


of fruits, however, is in their natural sugars and organic acids, 
which present a variety of pleasing flavors. A diet might 
be entirely correct physiologically, and yet be psj^chologically 
deficient because of a lack of palatability. Fruits therefore 
rank especially high in the final dietetic reckoning. 

In McCullom’s classification nuts are grouped with seeds 
because they are seeds in nature. In practical dietetics I would 
suggest that the nuts deserve a separate classification because 
of their higher fat content, and therefore of their capacity to 
improve, in that respect, a diet mainly derived from grains in 
which the energy food is in the form of starch. 



Five of the mice after a month of devitalized food. 












OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


411 


Low Ranking for Meat. —The greatest novelty of 
McCullom’s system of food classification is in the dietetic rank- 
ing given to meat. This eminent scientist is not a vegetarian, 
and in fact rejects the vegetarian diet on the assumption that 
man is by nature omnivorous and that his‘dietetic necessities are 
analogous to those of the rats, pigs, and chickens. Neither 
does he take into consideration the objections to meat in the 
diet on the ground that it is a source of disease or that it con¬ 
tains the unexcreted waste products of the animal. Yet 
viewed wholly from the standpoint of its function in nature, 
McCullom ranks meat as of low dietetic value because meat as 
consumed is almost wholly made up of the functionally spe¬ 
cialized tissue of muscle or stored fat. Neither sort of tissue 
is as rich in living cell protoplasm as are the active functional 
organs of the body. Fat meat is obviously a storehouse of 
food energy and as such is analogous to the stored fats in nuts 
and seeds. Lean meat is muscle and is composed of active 
cells. But these muscle cells are highly specialized for one 
function and hence may not be expected to be a source of com¬ 
plete nutrition for the entire physiological activity. In sup¬ 
port of this unique view McCullom points put that carnivorous 
animals prefer the blood and the physiological active organs, 
such as the liver and kidneys, of their prey. Moreover, they 
also gnaw the bones. 

Both the chemical analysis and the biological feeding tests 
seem to support this view of the dietetic insufficiency of meat 
products such as are consumed by man. Milk is a complete 
food and will support growth and reproduction in experi¬ 
mental animals. Meat, on the other hand, is a deficient, and 
requires to be supplemented by the protective foods much as 
does a diet of seeds. 

The conventional diet of civilized man is dominantly one 
of seeds and meats, to which may be added refined sugar, and 
oils. If to this diet milk, leaves and fruits be added, nutrition 
is complete. Without such additions, especially when grains 
and vegetables are denatured in milling and cooking, the mal¬ 
nutrition and deficiency diseases of civilization result. 




412 MACF AD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Such in brief are the conclusions of the most advanced 
authorities of the science of nutrition. These conclusions agree 
with the essential principle of physical culture dietetic teach¬ 
ings. When I began my work in food reform my views were 
freely ridiculed by physicians and by the food chemists of 
universities and government laboratories. Today the “natural” 
food system of dietetics, which I have advocated from the 
beginning, has been established by the research of highest 
authorities in those very scientific groups which formerly rid¬ 
iculed my teachings. At the beginning of the twentieth 
century vegetarians were looked upon as unscientific cranks. 
Today the vegetarian diet, when it includes the use of milk 
and eggs, stands approved by scientists as the most efficient 
diet known to man. In regard to it McCullom says: “Lacto- 
vegetarianism, when the diet is properly planned, is the most 
highly satisfactory plan which can be adopted in the nutrition 
of man.” 




CHAPTER XVIII 


MILK MILK PRODUCTS AND EGGS. 

M ILK, in one form or another, is common throughout 
the civilized world. It is estimated that nearly thirty 
gallons per year are consumed by every man, woman 
and child in the United States. 

In this country the animal that is generally bred for the 
production of a supply of milk is the cow. It is not asserted 
that the milk of cows is any more desirable for human food than 
that of some other mammals, but their milk producing power is 
generally more satisfactory. Our preference for cow’s milk 
is undoubtedly owing to custom and acquired taste. In India 
buffalo milk is used, and in South America that of the llama. 
In Switzerland and other rough and hilly countries of Europe 
it is the milk of the goat, while in the faraway frozen North 
the milk of the reindeer is a staple article of diet. Other lands 
favor other milk. 

Average Composition of Milk. —The average composi¬ 
tion of milk obtained from the various mammals is as follows: 


Average composition of milk of various kinds. 


KIND OF MILK. 

Water. 

Total 

solids. 

Protein. 

Fat. 

Carbo- 

h y* 

drates 

(milk 

sugar). 

Mineral 

mat¬ 

ters. 

Fuel 

value 

per 

pound. 

Casein. 

Albu¬ 

min, 

Total. 


Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Calo¬ 

ries. 

Woman . 

87.58 

12.6 

0.80 

1.21 

2.01 

3.74 

6.37 

0.30 

310 

Cow . 

87.27 

12.8 

2.88 

.51 

3.39 

3.68 

4.94 

.72 

310 

Goat. 

86.88 

13.1 

2.87 

.89 

3.76 

4.07 

4.64 

.85 

315 

Sheep. 

83.57 

16.4 

4.17 

.98 

5.15 

6.18 

4.73 

.96 

410 

Buffalo (Indian).. 

82.16 


4.26 

.46- 


7.51 

4.77 

.84 


Zphti . 

86.13 




3.03 

4.80 

5.34 

.70 


Ofltnpl. 

87.13 


3.49 

.38 


2.87 

5.39 

.74 


Llama. 

86.55 


3.00 

.90 


3.15 

5.60 

.80 


Reindppr. 

67.20 


8.38 

1.51 


17.09 

2.82 

1.49 



90.58 

9.9 

1.30 

.75 


1.14 

5.87 

.36 


Ass . 

90.12 

10.4 

.79 

1.06 


1.37 

6.19 

.47 

215 


The average composition of milk products as compared with 

413 













































414 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


other foods in common use is shown as per Government 
analyses in the accompanying table: 


Average composition of milk products compared with other food materials. 


MATERIAL. 

Refuse. 

Water. 

Protein. 

Fat. 

Carbo- 

hy¬ 

drates. 

Ash. 


Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Whole milk . 


87.0 

3.3 

4.0 

5.0 

0.7 

Skim milk . 


90.5 

3 4 

.3 

5.1 

.7 

Cream ... 


74.0 

2.5 

18.5 

4.5 

.5 

Buttermilk . 


91.0 

3.0 

.5 

4.8 

.7 

W T hej’ . 


93.0 

1.0 

.3 

5.0 

.7 

Condensed milk, unsweetened . 

1 

71.3 

7.4 

8.5 

11.1 

1.7 

Condensed milk, sweetened . 

1 

26.0 

8.2 

9.6 

54.3 

1.9 

Butter . 

I 

13.0 

1.0 

83.0 


3.0 

Cheese, American Cheddar . 

1 

33.5 

26.0 

35.5 

1.5 

3.5 

Cheese, cottage . 

1 

53.0 

19.6 

23.2 

2.1 

2.1 

Cheese, Swiss . 

1 

31.4 

27.6 

! 34.9 

1.3 

4.8 

Milk powder (from skimmed milk) . 

1 

3.0 

34.0 

3.1 

51.9 

8.0 

Kephir. 


89.6 

3.1 

2.0 

a 4.5 

.8 

Koumiss . 


90.7 

2.2 

2.1 

b 4.1 

.9 

Infant and invalid foods, farinaceous .. 


9.4 

9.4 

.4 

c 7t?.9 

.9 

Infant and invalid foods containing milk 







and starches ...1 


4.3 

9.6 

3.8 

d 80.2 

2.1 

Infant and invalid foods, malted prepa- 1 






rations . 


4.2 

12.0 

1.0 

e 79.8 

, 3.0 

Beef, sirloin steak . 

12.8 

54.0 

16.5 i 

16.1 


.9 

Eorgs, as purchased . 

11.2 

65 5 

11.9 

9.3 


.9 

Wheat flour, natent roller nroress . 1 






12.0 

11.4 

1.0 

75.1 


Wheat bread, white . 1 . 

35.3 

9.2 

1.3 

53.1 

1.1 

Rea ns Laker! ... .._ 

68.9 I 

6.9 

2.5 

19.6 

2.1 

Potatoes, as purchased . ! 

20.0 

62.6 

1.8 

A 

14^7 

]8 

Apples, as purchased .j 

25.0 | 

63.3 

.3 

.3 

10.8 

.3 


a Including 2.1 per cent, alcohol and 0.8 per cent, lactic acid. 
b Including 1.7 per cent, alcohol and 0.9 per cent, lactic acid. 
c Including 6.62 per cent, soluble carbohydrates (sugars). 
d Including 49.05 per cent, soluble carbohydrates (sugars). 
e Including 48.39 percent, soluble carbohydrates (sugars). 


As the table shows, the three groups of protein, fat and 
carbohydrates are represented by fair proportions as compared 
with other foods, the quantities of protein and fat being espe¬ 
cially noteworthy, as it is these elements and the mineral matter, 
ash, which give milk its peculiar value as food. 

Milk varies very much in quality owing to the different 
nutrient elements found. It is entirely possible for one man # 
to pay nearly twice as much as his neighbor for an equivalent 
nutritive value in milk at the same price per quart, but from 
different dealers. In other words, if one pays ten cents a quart 
for milk that contains only half the quantity of nutritive food 

Vol. 1—26 w 






























































OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


415 


elements contained in a quart for which his neighbor pays only 
ten cents, he has paid twice as much as his neighbor. 

This is what leads the creameries to buy milk not in accord¬ 
ance with its quantity, but on the basis of the amount of 
chemical fats it contains. The wise owner of cows, therefore, 
whose cows are kept for the purpose of giving milk, will make 
it his effort to develop animals that will produce milk that con¬ 
tains large proportions of the fat elements. The Alderney, 
Jersey and other Channel Island breeds, are well known for 
their rich cream-producing qualities. Yet there are many 
other breeds that yield milk containing fairly good proportions 
of all the food ingredients. 

It is this variation in the milk of different cows that leads 
dairymen who supply the milk trade to mix the milk drawn 
from all the cows of the herd as speedily as possible after milk¬ 
ing. This is an advantage to the consumer, as it keeps the 
milk day by day at a reasonable uniformity. 

Where one is purchasing from unprincipled dealers, how¬ 
ever, the variation in the quality of the milk is determined by 
the amount of water added. Sometimes a dealer will allow the 
milk to stand and remove the cream. While this is not adulter¬ 
ation in the sense of any added ingredient to the milk, it is 
however adulteration under the law if the product is sold as 
whole milk, and it is a theft to the consumer because it deprives 
him of the food values for which he pays. 

Cleanliness and Quality Essential.— In those cities 
that carefully guard the health and pocket of its citizens a 
certain standard has been established for the quality of milk. 
Any milk found below this standard is condemned. Every city 
and town in the United States should have such a standard and 
see that it is rigidly maintained. Necessarily the higher the 
requirement, the better for the purchaser. The retail trade 
might be conducted on somewhat the same plan as the dairies 
which make butter and cheese, where they buy and pay for the 
milk according to the amount of fat which it contains. In such 
a case the milk could be tested by the regular standard and • 
if the milk surpasses the quality required, the price could be 




416 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


correspondingly increased. If it fell below, the price would 
be reduced. Under such methods both producer and con¬ 
sumer would be fairly treated, and the producer whose uniform 
product was of an extra high grade would soon establish a 
reputation that would be of value to him, as well as give the 
consumei a reliable hint as to where the richest milk could be 
obtained. 

Unless one is perfectly familiar with those dealers who 
advertise “sanitary” and “hygienic” milk, it would be well to 
regard their products with suspicion, for it has been found that 
those dealers who claim the most for their milk in these points 
often secure their milk from dairies which are in a most 
decidedly unsanitary condition. 

It cannot be too strongly emphasized that one cannot exer¬ 
cise too great care in keeping everything connected with milk 
in the most cleanly and sanitary state. A properly conducted 
dairy will be as clean as a well-conducted kitchen. There will 
be neither piles of refuse nor ponds of vile-smelling liquids 
to attract and breed flies either in the cow-shed or the nearby 
yard. The udders and teats of the cows will be washed before 
being milked and every care taken to see that the milk is 
kept clean and uncontaminated up to the time that it is placed 
in the hands of the consumer. This means the scrupulous 
washing of all utensils that come in contact with it in any way, 
and more than ordinary care on the part of those handling 
it. If there is the slightest suspicion in any one of these partic¬ 
ulars, the consumer should find a new and more careful dealer. 

There are times when milk that has not been mixed has 
a somewhat unpleasant taste. This can easily be remedied by 
aerating it. This is done by pouring the milk from one vessel 
to another half a dozen times, so as to produce air bubbles in 
it. An improved taste is the result from this contact with air. 

Goat's Milk. —Next to cows the goat is the most useful 
milch animal. It is said that as a food for man, its milk is 
far superior to cow’s milk. It is purer, more nutritious, more 
easily digested, and more nearly a perfect food for the human 
system. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


417 


In composition, goat’s milk has a smaller proportion of 
water, and a considerably larger proportion of both fat and 
albumin. In the proportions of sugar, casein, and dry sub¬ 
stance, the two kinds of milk are about equal. Some analyses 
give the goat’s milk a higher proportion of sugar. Even if the 
percentage of sugar is equal, however, the milk of the goat is 
much richer in nutritive composition. 

Goat’s milk is particularly wholesome for infants, because 
its composition is almost the same as that of human milk. Fur- 
thermore, as its cream rises far less rapidly, it remains more 
nearly in an unchanged condition for several hours. 

Foreign writers commend goat’s milk not only as food for 
children but also as food for invalids and for use in cooking. 
Some of them hold that the milk is highly beneficial when 
used as a medicine for certain diseases and ailments. In a 
number of sanitariums in France and Switzerland, this milk is 
considered as an important factor in certain systems of treat¬ 
ment. In these places the goat’s milk is used extensively in 
cooking, and is also given to the patients in large quantities in 
its natural state. 

The whey of the goat’s milk is highly commended for its 
nourishing and medicinal properties. It is held to be especially 
beneficial for lung diseases and for weakness resulting from 
innutrition. 

On account of the comparatively low cost of keeping, the 
milch goat is especially valuable to the poorer classes. It is 
estimated that seventy-five per cent of the families in Germany 
keep goats. In that country, many people too poor to keep 
cows are able to have a goodly supply of milk by keeping goats. 

Both in relation to the supply of food and in relation to 
the weight of the body, the goat’s yield of milk is exceedingly 
large, about twice that of the cow. About three quarts a day 
is a good yield for one goat. 

While goats probably require greater gentleness in han¬ 
dling than cows, yet when treated kindly they are exceptionally 
easy to milk. In some countries, the people train their goats 
to allow children to suckle. 




418 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


In the American Southwest, among the Mexican popula¬ 
tion, goats are largely used, both as milk and cheese-producing 
animals. Over twenty thousand pounds of goats’ cheese are 
annually shipped from Trinidad, Colo., to eastern markets, 
besides the large amounts that are made for home consumption. 

Invalids and Milk.— A diet of milk has been from the 
earliest times recommended for invalids in general, and for 
persons suffering from specific diseases. Hippocrates, the 
father of medicine, advises consumptives to drink large quan¬ 
tities of asses’ milk. We have many records of cures of disease 
made by celebrated Arabian and Persian physicians by the use 
of camels’ milk and its sour products. 

Of late years, physicians in both Europe and America have 
called attention to the beneficial effects of the use of milk in 
certain diseases, but there have been few efforts to confine the 
diet exclusively to milk. The great mistake has been made of 
combining other foods with the milk, even meat, eggs, vegeta¬ 
bles and fruits, with a total want of knowledge and a disregard 
of the clear evidence that such mixtures not only fail to benefit 
but are positively injurious. 

Experience has demonstrated that where invalids suffering 
from certain diseases live exclusively upon the milk diet, taking 
it in as large quantities as possible, at definitely regular inter¬ 
vals, the whole system becomes “flushed” as it were, with the 
nutrient qualities of the milk, thus eliminating the diseased 
cells and forcing the body to take on and build new cells, free 
from disease and full of vigor. 

In Volume III of this book there are included full and com¬ 
plete instructions for the use of the milk diet as a curative 
agent. 

Buttermilk has always been regarded as a most agreeable 
beverage and it is well known that it has a decided food value. 
Buttermilk is very much like skimmed milk in composition, 
having about the same food value, hut it usually has a mild 
acid taste because the cream is allowed to sour before churning. 
During the process of churning the fat globules are brought 
together by churning and removed, and the thin liquid that 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


419 


remains is very similar in its constituent elements to skimmed 
milk. An ordinary glass contains about as much nourishment 
as two ounces of bread, a good sized potato, or a half pint of 
oysters. Many people find it more palatable than milk, but 
others find the sour taste unpleasant. It is as digestible as 
milk and often more so, for its casein forms a more flaky curd 
than that of ordinary milk. In Holland babies are fed on but¬ 
termilk and it often proves satisfactory when the protein of 
sweet milk proves indigestible. It is a good sign that its use 
is increasing in this country. Buttermilk ice-cream is consid¬ 
ered a delicacy in some parts of the country, being especially 
favored for invalids. 

There is a difference in buttermilk churned from sweet 
cream and that from soured cream. In the souring process 
lactic acid is produced. This is caused by a bacterial growth 
in the cream which feeds upon the milk sugar. Some people 
prefer the sweet buttermilk, but as far as nutritive value is 
concerned they are both about equal. There are‘cases, how¬ 
ever, where the lactic acid is an extra aid to digestion in that 
it supplies to some stomachs, in an easily assimilative form, 
the acid that it requires. 

Buttermilk being a good food and easily digested, aids in 
the purification of the blood, and thus may be used to give the 
complexion that healthful purity which is so much desired. 

Sour Milk. —Sour milk, known as clabber, although little 
used in this country, has been a common article of diet in 
many parts of Europe for centuries. Whether made from 
whole milk or skimmed milk it is valuable because of its 
nutritious qualities, but if made from skimmed milk the fat 
elements are removed and its nutritive value is correspondingly 
lowered. The souring process produces lactic acid, but this 
makes no appreciable difference in the fats, whether they are 
used for the making of butter or are used just as they are for 
food. 

Milk allowed to sour often develops a bitter or otherwise 
unpleasant flavor. This is owing to the fact that other bacteria 
besides those which produce the lactic acid are developed at 




420 MACF AD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the same time within the milk and cause chemical changes 
which produce these unpleasant flavors. These bacteria require 
the air for their development and usually appear in a yeasty 
mould form on the top of the milk. Hence, whenever one 
leaves milk to stand for the purpose of making sour milk, it 
should be carefully kept in an air-tight vessel or bottle, and if 
a “mouldy” part forms on top it should be carefully removed, 
since otherwise an extremely unpleasant bitterness will mar 
the flavor. In 1905 Professor Metchnikoff, sub-director of 
the Pasteur Institute of Paris, made known to the world the 
results of a number of experiments with sour milk. As a 
result of these he made some striking claims for this food 
beverage, the chief of which was that sour milk preserves the 
balance between two opposing elements in the blood and so 
leads to long life. 

Sumik, a special form of sour milk used as a beverage, is 
made as follows: The milk is allowed to turn to a clabber in 
an air-tight vessel. An ordinary fruit jar can be used to 
advantage. Simply fill the jar with sweet milk and screw 
down the lid very tightly, using the rubber ring that is essential 
for this purpose. As soon as the milk turns to a clabber, it is 
ready to prepare. 

The preparation consists simply in thoroughly beating and 
aerating the milk with an egg-beater or some similar device. 
When beaten until it is frothy, like whipped cream, it will in 
no way taste like ordinary sour milk. Do not forget that if 
soured while allowed to remain open to the air, the “mould” 
that frequently forms on the top of the fluid should be removed. 
If this is neglected the sumik will have a bitter, unpleasant 
taste. 

Since earliest times fermented-milk products have been 
used as beverages and articles of diet in Central Asia, Turkey 
and other countries. These products are prepared by allow¬ 
ing special ferments or yeasts to develop in milk, for, like all 
fermented beverages, they owe their sparkling or effervescent 
qualities to the carbon dioxide produced by the action of 
organism. The flavor differs with the process of manufacture. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


421 


These fermented-milk beverages have proved very satisfactory 
in invalid dietetics and are now well known and commonly 
used. Fermented-milk beverages may be made at home, 
though they are common commercial products in the United 
States. In this country cow’s milk is almost universally used 
to make these beverages, but other milk, for instance mare’s 
milk, is more common in Central Asia and other regions. 

A carbonated milk, which is made by charging milk with 
carbon dioxide, is sometimes found on sale, but, of course, it 
lacks the special qualities which all the fermented products 
contain. 

Some of these fermented-milk products contain lactic acid 
forming bacteria in great abundance, and their extensive use 
has been much discussed recently, owing to Metchnikoff’s 
theory and claims as previously stated. 

Milk Fat—Butter.— Butter is practically the fat of milk 
largely separated from the liquid. It is one of the most impor¬ 
tant sources of fat in the diet of most people and is undoubtedly 
the most palatable and digestible, yet, like all other concen¬ 
trated articles of diet, there is great danger of one’s eating too 
much of it. If too much is used it is indigestible, and a long- 
continued course of excessive eating of butter will cause a 
variety of digestive disturbances, such as biliousness and 
headache. 

The flavor of butter depends upon the milk from which it 
is made and the bacteria that develop therein. If eaten mod¬ 
erately, butter is a more economical source of food fat than 
is milk. One great objection to its use is the large amount 
of salt used in its manufacture. Salt is added because most 
people prefer the taste, and also because it improves its keep¬ 
ing qualities. However, since cold storage and domestic ice- 
chests have come into such universal use, butter is less salted 
than formerly. This is an advantage, for nothing is gained 
by the excessive use of salt, and much injury often results 
from it. 

In Europe sweet or unsalted butter is very popular, and 
its popularity is growing in the United States. Such butter 




422 MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


has a mild creamy flavor which many people relish. Naturally 
it will grow rancid if kept too long, consequently it must be 
used soon after it is made. A large number of people now 
make sweet butter at home as needed, churning the cream with 
an egg-beater, or any of the other devices that can be ob¬ 
tained in any hardware store. In some countries a peculiar 
form of butter, called “ghee,” is commonly used. The water 
is boiled out of freshly made butter and the product is kept 
for general use, especially for cooking. In the cold, high 
regions of Thibet, ghee is used in large quantities, lumps of it 
being put into tea, as the ordinary tea-drinker uses cream. 
Ghee is very similar to the rendered butter which is used by 
orthodox Hebrews in kosher cookery. 

In keeping butter in a refrigerator, care should be taken 
that foods with a strong odor, such as cabbage, onions, celery, 
etc., are not placed near it, as it has the power of absorbing 
these flavors and thus vitiating its own. 

Oleomargarin.— Oleomargarin is a substitute for butter 
used largely for purposes of economy. It is composed of 
animal fats from which the fiber has been removed, churned up 
with milk and cream and a little real butter to give it the 
appearance, consistency and flavor of real butter. When 
properly made from pure beef and other fats, it is no more 
unhealthy than any other animal product, but unless one is 
convinced of the integrity of the manufacturer, there are so 
many incitements to use inferior and unhealthful articles that 
the risk of adulteration is too great to run. Naturally only the 
poor will use this product and it is a remarkable comment upon 
the force of example and habit that where economy is necessity, 
though the food values obtained from oleomargarin can better 
be gained in cheaper and equally healthful forms of vegetable 
oils, many people prefer to purchase oleomargarin, as other¬ 
wise they seem to be “eating their bread without butter.” One 
should remember, however, that pure butter contains the 
valuable vitamine not found in substitutes. 

Cheese is another of the products of milk that has long 
been regarded with universal favor. It consists of the casein of 





Cheese Ramekin. —Stir and boil until smooth one cup of bread crumbs and 
-one half cup of milk. Add a small lump of butter and four tablespoonfuls of 
grated cheese. Salt to taste. Stir until cheese is dissolved, remove from fire. 
Stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs and then the whites beaten to a froth. Bake 
in a buttered pudding dish fifteen or twenty minutes. 



Rice Croquettes. —To two cups of cold boiled rice add one well beaten egg, one 
teaspoonful of butter and salt to taste. Mix thoroughly, and with the floured 
hands make into little rolls and fry in deep pan of olive oil. Arrange on platter 
with green peas, garnish with slices of boiled carrot. 


422 a 




































*« 



























































































































































. 


















OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


423 


milk and small proportions of fat and mineral matters which 
are precipitated along with it when rennet is added to milk. 
The flavor of cheese is due chiefly to the action of ferments or 
bacteria, and, in the case of some of the expensive and highly 
prized varieties, to the action of moulds. The richness of the 
various kinds depends upon the quality of the milk and the 
proportion of the butter-fats contained therein. When cream 
itself is converted into cheese, it makes the richest variety, but 
it will not keep long, and so has to be eaten almost fresh. 
When cream is added to fresh milk and then converted 
into cheese, the product is one of the richer varieties such as the 
English cheese “Double Gloucester” and “Stilton.” If new 
milk alone is used, the cheese is less rich, but is still of high 
quality, such as the English “Cheddar.” When an eighth or 
tenth of the cream has been taken and the remainder converted 
into cheese, it produces the average cheese generally purchased. 
The poorer varieties of cheese are made entirely of skimmed 
milk. The various methods and the different kinds of milk 
used in making even these poor cheeses produce such different 
results as the Dutch cheese, Swiss cheese, Welsh cheese, etc., 
all of which have about the same nutritive value, although they 
are markedly different in their general flavors. 

Wh$n first made, all cheeses are soft and comparatively 
tasteless since it is during the so-called processes of “ripening” 
that the bacterial changes occur which develop the flavors. 
These changes are now so well understood by cheese manufac¬ 
turers that they are utilized with as much certainty as the 
housewife feels when she puts by a pan of milk expecting the 
cream to rise thereon. 

Cheese has long had a reputation for indigestibility. It 
is no more indigestible than any other concentrated food. It 
has gained this reputation, however, thru the fact that it has 
been used, not as a regular article of diet, but, like nuts, as an 
tid-bit at the close of a meal; besides, it is seldom thoroughly 
masticated and the resulting digestive disturbances are then 
unjustly blamed on the cheese. A large number of scientific 
digestive experiments have been carried on with cheese, all of 




424 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


which, without exception, have shown that relatively large 
amounts, if properly masticated, are thoroughly assimilated 
without causing any disturbances whatever. Indeed, a good 
quality of American cheese is a very nutritious food, rich in 
protein and fat, and it can well be added to the diet of those 
who wish increased vigor at a low cash outlay, but who are 
willing thoroughly to masticate a concentrated food to obtain it. 

In regard to the use of Limburger and other expensive 
cheeses of like character, it can only be said that the bacterial 
and moulding processes have so far continued as to develop a 
high flavor and smell which are very objectionable to all those 
who have not cultivated the habit of eating them. Like the 
taste for the high flavors developed by allowing game to hang, 
the taste for these cheeses is abnormal and therefore harmful, 
and the less a health-seeker has to do with such putrefied sub¬ 
stances the better. 

Cottage cheese, as made at home from sour milk, with or 
without cream, is a nutritious and palatable food. It is inex¬ 
pensive and is also an economical method of using sour milk. 
Neufchatel cheese, while a regular commercial product sold in 
large quantities in cities, is merely a commercial form of cottage 
cheese. 

Junket is a favorite dish which is prepared by adding rennet 
to milk and allowing it to stand undisturbed until it thickens or 
coagulates. If the process is carefully carried out, a thick 
custard-like product results. If, however, it is stirred, the 
casein readily breaks up and separates from the whey. Rennet 
for the preparation of junket may be purchased at any of the 
large grocery stores and all of those that have been tested give 
satisfactory results. 

Problem of Milk Supply. —All intelligence and all 
modern scientific investigation agree in rating milk and milk 
products as of the very highest food value. The milk supply, 
particularly of large cities, is vitally important to the health 
and welfare of the inhabitants and is a matter of life and death 
to the young children. Yet in spite of these facts the milk 
supply does not keep pace with the demands, and the prices of 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


425 


milk in the cities continues to mount to figures that are pro¬ 
hibitive to the poor. 

If this pressing problem is to be solved, two things must be 
done. In the first place, there must be a decrease of meat 
production, and the land and feed now given over to steers and 
hogs must be utilized for dairy farming. In the second place, 
less expensive methods must be utilized for getting the milk 
from the fertile farming regions to the city populations. 
Closely related with these problems is the point concerning the 
use of skim-milk for hog feed. Butter is a good food, but it 
represents only a part of the milk values. It would be better to 
use butter substitutes in cookery and as a spread for bread, and 
a larger portion of whole milk than to use the extracted butter 
and throw away the rest of the milk. But as long as the rich 
will pay enough for butter to permit the farmer to feed the 
skim-milk to hogs, the children of the poor will continue to be 
starved for the needed milk nutrients. 

The practical problem is rendered more difficult by the fact 
that the most fertile farm regions are too far from our large 
cities to permit the milk to be shipped in the fresh state. Milk 
can be cheaply condensed either in the form of the “evaporated” 
milk or the sweetened condensed product. While not quite 
equal to fresh, these condensed products are wholesome, as all 
the milk nutrients are preserved in them; but this does not 
offer sufficient economy to help much because the condensed 
milk still weighs about half as much as the fresh article and 
expensive tin containers are required to preserve and transport 
it. A much more promising method is the dehydration or 
drying of milk. In this process the entire water content is 
removed; the dried milk weighs only from ten to fifteen per 
cent as much as the fresh equivalent, and may be preserved 
without canning. 

Dried milk, prepared by the proper process, is wholesome 
and palatable. It is not cooked since the maximum tempera¬ 
ture used in the dehydration need not exceed 145 degrees. The 
vitamines are preserved, and so are the mineral salts and the 
proteins. Dried milk can be made from either the whole or 

Vol. 1—27 




426 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the skim-milk. The latter keeps perfectly, though the dried 
whole milk must be kept away from the air, or the fats may 
become somewhat rancid. The dried whole milk is equivalent 
to and should sell for not more than seven times the price per 
pound of the fresh milk. The dried skim-milk is equal to ten 
times the weight of the fresh skim-milk. By adding one-third 
as much butter as there is of the dried powder and whipping or 
churning the mixture, a reconstructed whole milk can be made 
that can hardly be told from the fresh article. Such means of 
preserving and reconstructing milk will enable the milk from 
the western farms and ranches, and from the abundant produc¬ 
tion of the flush season to be used in distant cities in the time 
of scarcity. It appears that only by such a system will our city 
poor be supplied in the near future with sufficient milk. 

There is great need for suitable legislation both to dis¬ 
courage the present waste of land and feed in the production 
of excessive quantities of meat and in the encouragement of 
the milk-producing industry and the proper preservation and 
distribution of the product. 

Substituting Eggs for Meat. —The place of eggs in the 
natural dietetic groups has already been referred to in previous 
chapters. Eggs unquestionably share with milk freedom from 
the objections made against flesh foods, and are therefore 
exceedingly valuable in a vegetarian diet. That fact, however, 
does not warrant us to accept the usual exaggerated claims of 
the economy of eggs as meat substitutes. The foolish state¬ 
ment that an egg contains more nutriment than a pound of 
steak has no foundation in the facts as far as its quantity of 
protein or its wheat-pound value is concerned. Figured on 
that basis, eggs are about equivalent to lean meat with a small 
proportion of fat, and are worth about fifty per cent, more per 
dozen than meat is per pound. 

The real value of eggs compared with meat is the fact of 
the better quality of the nutritive material, and the use of eggs 
in the place of meat permits the meat eater to discard the 
extravagant and injurious flesh food for a more delicate and 
wholesome substitute. Although the most common use of eggs 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


427 


is as a cooked dish used in the meal as is meat, eggs also may 
be used raw as milk is used. Some people like raw eggs eaten 
straight or with a pinch of salt; the majority, however, will not 
find them palatable in this form, but there are many ways of 
making them palatable while raw, even to the most finicky 
taste. For instance, an egg-nog can be made of milk, flavored 
with almost any kind of flavoring that appeals to the taste. Or 
an egg can be shaken up with any kind of fruit juice. Or if 
the whites and yolks are beaten up separately, and afterward 
combined, with the addition of a little sugar or some sweet 
fruit, the combination is very palatable. 

Raw eggs, soft-boiled, or poached eggs, are popularly con¬ 
sidered easier to digest than those that are hard-boiled, and so 
they are if the white of the hard-boiled egg is not thoroughly 
masticated. When the white is well chewed the hard-boiled 
egg is as digestible as any other kind. Jorissenne, a French 
dietetist, states that he regards the yolk of raw, soft-boiled, and 
hard-boiled eggs as equally digestible. The white of soft-boiled 
eggs, being semi-liquid, offers little more resistance to the 
digestive juices than raw white. The white of a hard-boiled 
egg is not generally very thoroughly masticated. Unless finely 
divided, it offers more resistance to the digestive juices than 
the fluid or semi-fluid white. Provided mastication is thorough, 
marked differences in the completeness of digestion of the three 
sorts of eggs will not be found. 

Eggs are excellent as a separate dish, but they are even 
more valuable in cookery. This use of eggs depends chiefly 
upon their quality of viscosity and their coagulation when 
heated. The latter property is the essential factor in custards. 
Custard is not only used alone, but as a basis for pudding and 
for cocoanut, pumpkin and lemon pies. This same property of 
viscosity in eggs makes them useful in salad dressings, cake 
frostings and the foamy whips or meringues used to top off 
man}^ dishes. 

These same properties of eggs gives them the power of 
lightening all sorts of baked products. The following experi¬ 
ment will give you a very clear conception of this property of 




428 MACF AD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


eggs. Mix a little water in a cup and add to it a spoonful of 
baking powder. It will foam beautifully, but the foam will 
immediately die down as the gas bubbles escape. Now stir a 
little egg white into the water and add baking powder, and the 
resulting foam will be more permanent. Eggs do not make the 
“lightness”; that must be secured by gas bubbles of some sort, 
either by the use of yeast, baking powder, or soda and sour 
milk. But the viscous property of the egg causes the bubbles 
to be retained until the material is hardened by heat and made 
permanently light. There is no other food substance that may 
be used for this purpose except the gluten of wheat flour. 

This lightness, due to the presence of bubbles, adds nothing 
to the food value, but it accords with our notions of good 
baking. Because eggs are expensive, many foods, notably corn 
bread, that we at first think to be economical prove to be expen¬ 
sive on account of the use of eggs. If you cannot afford eggs, 
you must learn to accept “heavier” breads and cakes. The 
hygienic value of such lightness has been exaggerated. If 
baked products are thoroughly cooked so that they contain no 
raw or soggy dough, and if they are well masticated, and if one 
does not overeat of them, they will not be indigestible. 

Richness is a term loosely applied to dishes such as plum 
pudding and fruit cakes that are heavy in texture and contain 
large quantities of both sugar and fat. The proverbial indi¬ 
gestibility of such products has little foundation in fact. Eat 
carefully and eat moderately and you need not worry. 

There is no efficient substitute for eggs in cookery. Use 
them for this purpose if you can afford them, if not go without 
—but do not be taken in by the fake egg “substitutes,” which 
are usually made of artificially colored corn starch and cost 
about five per cent of the price they are sold for, and are utterly 
worthless. 

Unscrupulous Egg Dealers.— The quality of eggs is 
very important. Like milk they are prone to spoilage, and 
decomposed eggs are not only harmful but offensive. There is 
little danger that one will use bad eggs when they are bought 
in the shell, but when bought in the disguised form of cheap 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


429 


bakery products the amount of bad eggs consumed is appalling. 
The government and city health departments have long made 
strenuous efforts to stamp out the trade in spoiled eggs. But 
because the eggs are high in price and necessary to make con¬ 
ventional bakery products, these worthy efforts are repeatedly 
frustrated by unscrupulous dealers and bakers. Since bakers’ 
cakes are usually unwholesome in other aspects as well, I 
should advise one to leave them out of the diet altogether, and 
so avoid the possibility of eating decayed eggs in this form. 

The question of the cold storage of eggs has attracted wide 
attention, both from the standpoint of wholesomeness and of 
the supposed injustice done the consumer in this system of the 
speculative storing of eggs in the season of low prices and their 
sale to the public in the season of scarcity. As a matter of fact, 
the egg storers do not make as much profit as is commonly sup¬ 
posed, for, while they make big money some years, they often 
lose when the season goes against them. It is rather the retailer 
who offends against honesty here by selling the cold storage 
eggs either as fresh or at an unreasonable profit over the whole¬ 
sale price. You can at least know whether you are being 
mulcted in this manner by consulting the wholesale price of 
cold storage eggs as given in the market reports and comparing 
this with the grocer’s figure. 

As for wholesomeness, the cold storage egg is never equal to 
the fresh article, because the process slows down and does not 
wholly stop the deterioration of the eggs. But cold storage 
eggs are put away in the season of plenty when the prices are 
falling and eggs are being rushed promptly to market. Hence, 
when the eggs come out of storage they may be as good or 
better than so-called fresh eggs that have been marketed in hot 
weather or have been held on the farms or by the country buyer 
in the early fall awaiting an advance in price. 

While fresh eggs are the only kind that particular people 
care to use, there are not enough of them to go around in the 
fall and winter months, and the average consumer must there¬ 
fore use the cold storage product or go without. In that case 
I would recommend that storage eggs, bought as such at 




430 MACFAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


storage prices, be used in cookery and that fresh eggs be 
secured for use raw, poached or soft boiled, in which cases 
perfect flavor is essential to palatability. 

There is no need at any time to be fooled into paying higher 
prices because the eggs are given fancy labels or are done up in 
fancy boxes. Neither is there any virtue in eggs of a peculiar 
shell color or from a certain breed of chickens. 

For those who wish to economize eggs may be preserved at 
home. Of the many methods recommended the only one really 
effective is the preservation in water glass. Details of the 
process can be secured from the Department of Agriculture. 
It is not a perfect method of preservation and the product is 
no better than cold storage, though the eggs are not unwhole¬ 
some and will serve for cooking purposes. 




CHAPTER XIX 


NATURAL FOODS AND THEIR QUALITIES. 

T HE common potato is by far the most important of 
the edible tubers, both as to nutritive value and the 
extent of its cultivation. The sweet potato ranks next 
to it. It has been estimated that the white or Irish potato (as 
it is commonly called) furnishes about one-eighth of the total 
food supply of America. It was first introduced into Europe 
between 1580 and 1585 by the Spaniards, and some people 
believe it to be a native of Chili. It is well known to some 
of the students and exploring botanists of the Southwest that 
one of its original habitats was in the mountains of Arizona. 

When one realizes how large a part it forms in the dietary 
of the peasantry of Ireland and other European countries, it 
is hard to conceive that it is only within the last two hundred 
years or less that it has become so staple a food. Since this 
time its use has constantly increased, for it is one of the cheap¬ 
est vegetables to raise, can be kept over the winter, is easy to 
prepare for the table, pleasant to the taste and very rich in 
digestible starch. It soon became a staple food among all 
classes throughout central and northern Europe, so that in the 
middle of the last century when the black rot wrought its deadly 
havoc on the potato crops, not only Ireland but large districts 
in continental Europe were seriously threatened with famine. 

It is a fact worthy of mention that, as the potato has been 
modified by cultivation, it has largely lost the power of pro¬ 
ducing seeds, and the cultivated potato differs from the wild 
in seldom producing seed-bearing fruits. This is a disadvan¬ 
tage from the plant breeder’s standpoint, as he depends on 
seeds from blossoms properly fertilized to yield new varieties. 
From the grower’s standpoint it is of little moment, as he 
always uses the old tubers in planting the potato crop, each 
“eye” in the potato being a bud on the underground stem 
which is capable of growing into a new plant. 


432 MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


The corky skin of the potato makes up about two and one- 
half per cent, of the whole, and the cortical layer eight and one- 
half per cent., leaving eighty-nine per cent, for the main body 
of the potato. Theoretically the skin is the only refuse or in¬ 
edible material, but in practice a considerable part of the 
cortical layer is usually removed with it, and in the case of po¬ 
tatoes that are lumpy or have shriveled in storage a much 
greater proportion of the flesh is wasted. When potatoes are 
baked or boiled in their jackets more or less of the flesh is wast¬ 
ed when the skin is removed, and in this case also the amount 
of the loss bears some relation to the shape of the tubers. 
Careful investigation has shown that it is safe to estimate that 
even with careful peeling about twenty per cent, of the potato 
is lost. Therefore it is best not to peel potatoes except in the 
case of those that are to be mashed. A decided flavor that is 
exceedingly delicious and peculiar to the skin and cortical lay¬ 
ers is entirely lost in peeling, and the objection that the potato 
peeling is indigestible will be found to be groundless when any¬ 
thing like reasonable 
mastication is prac¬ 
ticed. 

The best method 
of preparing pota¬ 
toes is, after care¬ 
fully washing them, 
to immerse them in 
hot water, using as 
little water as pos¬ 
sible, and then allow¬ 
ing all of the water 
to evaporate during 
boiling. 

The edible portion 
of the potato as gen¬ 
erally used holds on 
an average about 
seventy-eight per 



The Asparagus Bean 











OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


433 


cent, water, and so only about twenty per cent, of the whole 
tuber has a direct food value. 

Our illustration shows the potato’s composition in graphic 
form, indicating the proportion usually wasted when the 
potato is boiled. 

This diagram shows that the bulk of the potato tuber is 
water. The stage of growth and other conditions affect the 
proportion present, young tubers being more juicy or watery 
than those which are fully developed. When potatoes are 
stored, they undergo a shrinkage, chiefly owing to loss of water 
or juice by evaporation. 

The carbohydrates are by far the most abundant of the nu¬ 
trients. Of the eighteen and four-tenths per cent, present 
less than five-tenths per cent, is made up of cellulose, the 
bulk being in the form of starch, which is, of course, insoluble 

in cold water, and 
small quantities of 
such soluble carbo¬ 
hydrates as dex¬ 
trose sugar, etc. 
In young tubers 
there is a larger 
proportion of 
sugars and less 

A diagram showing the potato’s nutritive qualities. 0 

starch than when 

they have become mature. As the tuber lies in the ground the 
starch content increases. When it begins to sprout, however, 
part of the starch is converted by a ferment of the tuber into 
soluble glucose. Thus, young or early potatoes and old ones 
both have a smaller proportion of starch and a larger propor¬ 
tion of soluble sugars than well grown but still fresh tubers. 

The protein bodies are rather scanty, as compared with 
those of cereals and such vegetables as peas and beans. Only 
about sixty per cent, of the total amount present is true pro¬ 
tein—that is, in a form which can be used for the building and 
repair of body tissue. This means that a pound of potatoes 
furnishes only about one and three-tenths per cent, or two- 










434 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


tenths of an ounce of true protein, and it emphasizes the state¬ 
ment already made that potatoes alone make a very incom¬ 
plete diet, as the proportion of nitrogenous material would be 
very small in a quantity sufficient to supply the body with all 
the energy-yielding material required. 

In cooking the heat affects the various constituents of the 
potato in different ways. The water expands into steam, part 
of which evaporates from the surface. Within the minute cells 
that compose the tuber it presses so hard against the walls that 
the tough cellulose is ruptured just as any air-tight vessel may 
be broken by the pressure of expanding steam. The starch 
grains inside the cells are thus released, some of them being 
also disintegrated, while part are changed into the soluble form 
of dextrin by the heat, and part are filled with water or hy¬ 
drated. The protein coagulates or hardens, much as the white 
of egg does in boiling, and at least a part of it is broken down 
into simpler bodies. The mineral salts are probably little af¬ 
fected, but some of them are broken down, part of their con¬ 
stituents passing off as gases and part forming new compounds 
with quite different characteristics. It is the sum of these and 
minor changes which make the difference between a raw and 
a cooked potato. 

It is generally considered that potatoes, when properly mas¬ 
ticated, yield up their nutrient qualities as easily as any other 
food. Hence the charge that they are indigestible is not borne 
out by the many experiments that at different times have been 
made with them. Yet, as has already been stated, they are not 
a perfect food when eaten alone. It is seldom, however, that any 
person, no matter how poor, has to live entirely on potatoes. 
The poorest of the peasantry in Ireland eat them with an 
abundance of buttermilk which supplies all the protein neces¬ 
sary. Ordinarily they are eaten with other foods rich in pro¬ 
tein, such as meat, milk, eggs, etc., and thus they supplement 
these nitrogenous foods by furnishing the needed carbohydrat¬ 
es. Their abundant mineral matters are also valuable in aiding 
the processes of digestion, and are supposed to prevent scurvy. 
They are easy to cook, and can be prepared in so many ways 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


435 


that they add variety to the list of vegetable dishes, especially 
in winter, when green vegetables are not common. They have 
a mild, agreeable flavor acceptable to almost everyone, but 
which is not sufficiently pronounced to become tiresome. Ow¬ 
ing to the ease with which they are grown and their abundant 
yield, they sell at a price within the reach of all. 

The Sweet Potato. —Another variety of potato that is 
growing in popular use in this country, although it is almost 
ignored in Europe, is the sweet potato. It is also sometimes 
called yam, a name which really belongs to an entirely dif¬ 
ferent order of plant hardly known outside of tropical coun¬ 
tries. The edible portion of the sweet potato plant is not an 
underground stem like the white potato tuber, but a true 
root, though its role in the life-history of the plant is much 
the same, namely, to act as a storehouse of plant food for the 
growth and early development of the new crop of plants. The 
following table shows the average composition of sweet and 
Irish potatoes: 


Average composition of sweet and white potatoes. 


KIND OF POTATO. 

Refuse. 

Water. 

Protein 

Fat. 

Carbohydrates. 

Ash. 

Fuel 

value 

pet- 

pound. 

Sugar, 

starch, 

etc. 

Crude 

fiber. 


Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Calo¬ 

ries. 

Sweet potatoes (edible 









portion). 


69.0 

1.8 

0.7 

26.1 

1.3 

1.1 

570 

Sweet potatoes (as pur¬ 








chased). 

20.0 

55.2 

1.4 

.6 

21.9 

.9 

460 

Sweet potatoes (cooked) 


51.9 

3.0 

2.1 

42.1 

.9 

925 

Sweet potatoes (canned) 


55.2 

1.9 

.4 

40.6 

.8 

1.1 

820 

White potatoes (edible 









portion). 


78.3 

2.2 

.1 

18.0 

.4 

1.0 

375 

White potatoes (as pur¬ 









chased) . 

20.0 

62.6 

1.8 

.1 

14.7 

1 

.8 

310 


Sweet potatoes contain on an average about nine per cent, 
less water, and nine per cent, more carbohydrates than Irish 
potatoes. They supply a lot of tissue-building material for 
the body. They also contain considerable quantities of sugar, 
a part of which is cane sugar, and part invert sugar or glucose. 
The proportion of sugar and starch varies with the climate. 



























436 MAC FAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


The warmer the place in which the plant is grown, the greater 
the proportion of food laid by in the form of sugar. Tropical 
sweet potatoes sometimes contain almost equal quantities of 
sugars and starch. Those grown in New Jersey, on the other 
hand, probably do not average more than five or six per cent, 
of sugar, or about one-fifth of their total carbohydrates. 

The changes which cooking makes in sweet potatoes are 
similar to those which take place in white potatoes. One point 
is generally noticeable—the longer the cooking is continued 
the more moist does the root become. This is probably due 
to changes in the carbohydrates. Part of the starch is doubt¬ 
less changed to soluble carbohydrates by the heat and then 
dissolved in the juice, and the cane-sugar is inverted—that is, 
split up into simple sugar. The very sweet Southern varieties 
become so moist during baking, that a sirup frequently exudes 
through the skin. 

Experiments have shown that sweet potatoes are easily 
digested when not eaten with too large quantities of butter. 
Their dryness often induces people to add too much butter. 
This makes a rich mixture that doubtless accounts for the 
claim which is often made that they are indigestible. 

Considering both their composition and digestibility, it may 
be said that the nutritive value of sweet potatoes is much the 
same as that of white potatoes, and that they are well fitted 
to occupy the same place in the diet, and furnish a palatable 
substitute for white potatoes. Further, their characteristic 
and pleasing flavor is an additional advantage. In the North 
they frequently cost somewhat more than white potatoes, but 
are still among the cheaper vegetables. In the South they are 
quite as cheap or cheaper than white potatoes, and merit their 
extensive use. 

The Onion. —The onion is a most useful vegetable and 
cannot be too highly commended. While its nutritive value 
is not great, it compares favorably with other vegetable foods 
and at the same time contains elements that are highly bene¬ 
ficial to the stomach, intestines, liver and brain. Like cabbage, 
it is one of Nature’s provisions for winter as it is a vegetable 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


437 


which can be stored for many months 
without losing either its flavor or food 
value. While the pungent volatile oil is 
objectionable to some people, its positive 
quality is highly beneficial, botli to the 
healthy body and in most cases of disease. 

As a blood purifier, it is one of the best 
of vegetables. While it may be eaten in 
any manner that is agreeable to the taste, 
it exercises its beneficial influence better 




Asparagus is credited with 
prompting the function of the 
kidneys to a marked degree. 

as the spring onions, or 
sliced and eaten with a 
little salt. Where the 
taste craves a little acid 
with onion, as with cu¬ 
cumber, do not use 
vinegar but squeeze a 
little lemon juice over 
them. 

The natural opiates 
found in onions, if these 


Slight fevers and colds 
can be cured by eating 
onions. 

when eaten raw than cooked. The best 
onions to eat are the young spring 
onions direct from the garden. If 
necessary they may be chopped up, 
tops and all, and either eaten separ¬ 
ately or added to any vegetable salad. 
If chopped up fine, they may be 
sprinkled to advantage over almost 
any kind of cooked vegetable just be¬ 
fore the cooking process is com¬ 
pleted. When young onions cannot be 
obtained the larger and milder species 
which are sweet, such as the Teneriffe. 
Barletta, Rocca and California-Ber- 
muda, may be used. These may be 
cut up and used in the same manner 



Cabbage, especially when young and tender, has 
aperient qualities. 












438 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


are eaten with well masticated food, produce a soothing ef¬ 
fect, without any after injury, as is the case where artificial 
sedatives are used. Insomnia has been overcome by giving the 
patient a large basin of Bermuda onions, well sliced and 
cooked until they are quite soft, without throwing away any 
of the water in which cooked. The soup should be thickened 
by the addition of a little milk and corn meal. In the cook¬ 
ing of onions for this purpose, however, as little butter and 
salt as possible should be used, olive oil being preferable to 
butter. 

Asparagus. —Asparagus is well known as a most palatable 
and useful vegetable, owing to its action upon the kidneys. It 
also has a most tonicking effect, at the same time soothing the 
nerves of those of excitable temperament or those whose oc¬ 
cupations make great demands upon the brain. 

Cabbage.— Cabbage in its natural state makes a most 
delicious dish, and those who become accustomed to eat it thus, 
when sliced or chopped up, prefer it to cabbage in the cooked 
state. To those inclined to constipation it has a very beneficial 
effect and at the same time cools and purifies the blood. 

Mushrooms. —Few people realize the value of mushrooms 
as an article of diet. Among the wealthy, they are generally 
used for flavoring purposes, but both wild and cultivated they 
are a highly desirable, nutritious and tasty food. The Rus¬ 
sian peasant finds in the mushroom one of his chief articles of 
diet and experience demonstrates that it has great food value. 

Okra.— Although used in the Mediterranean regions of 
Europe for many centuries, okra, or gumbo, as it is commonly 
called, has only within comparatively modern times been im¬ 
ported into this country. Its food value is not great, but as it 
adds a very pleasant taste and mucilaginous consistency to 
soups which render them most palatable to many people, its 
use will doubtless materially increase in the years to come. It 
is raised in the South, but it is found that certain varieties grow 
very successfully in the middle and northern sections of the 
country. According to W. R. Beattie, of the Bureau of Plant 
Industry, the principal use of okra is in soups and various 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


439 


culinary preparations in which meats form an important factor, 
as in the so-called gumbo soups, to which the young pods im¬ 
part an excellent flavor. But it is equally useful where meats 
are not used. The young seeds are occasionally cooked in the 
same way as green peas, and the very young and tender pods 
are boiled and served as a salad with French dressing. Both 
the stem and the mature pod contain a fiber which is employed 
in the manufacture of paper. 

No copper, brass or iron cooking vessels should be employed 
in preparing okra, as the metal will be absorbed and the pods 
discolored or even rendered poisonous. The cooking should be 
done in agate, porcelain, or earthenware. 

Other Vegetables. —Beets, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, 
pumpkin, squash and artichokes are all rich in nutrients and 
at the same time have decidedly beneficial effects upon the 
stomach and liver. 

Salads. —Vegetables in their natural condition are Nature’s 
correctives for any of the lighter ailments to which man is sub¬ 
ject. Tolstoy called his vegetable garden his “medicine chest.” 

Vegetables have distinctly soothing, strengthening and 
healing effects that render them very valuable as regular 
articles of diet. All of the salads, such as lettuce, endive, 
radishes, green-onions, water-cress and the like have a decidedly 
beneficial effect upon the body. Everyone has seen dogs, cats, 
and chickens eat grass, thus showing Nature’s leadings, by in¬ 
stinct, towards the green foods of the earth. What instinct 
does for the lower animals, reason does for man in that it shows 
him that these foods help keep his body in that perfect health 
that every man desires. When the blood is thick and sluggish 
with overfeeding or wrong feeding, nothing seems to cool it 
and reduce it to its normal consistency better than lettuce and 
the other salads mentioned. 

All people are familiar with the sedative effect of the salads, 
especially lettuce and onions. There is enough in these of a 
perfectly harmless narcotic to induce healthful and restful 
sleep without any fear of future injury. If those who suffer 
from insomnia and nervousness would refuse to eat any other 




440 


MACF AD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


food than a light salad for their evening meal, it would not be 
long before they would be sleeping as perfectly as a healthy 
baby. 

The Carrot. —The carrot has long been considered a most 
healthful vegetable, especially when eaten in its natural state. 
The best way to enjoy a carrot is to walk out to a vegetable 
garden at least five miles distant from your home, if possible, 
and while the blood is circulating freely as a result of the walk, 
pluck the carrot from the ground, wash or scrape it and im¬ 
mediately eat it, giving it the most thorough and complete 
mastication. Near Paris a well known ex-actress has long con¬ 
ducted a “Carrot Cure.” Her establishment has gained con¬ 
siderable fame because of the many patrons she has of both 
sexes who have found vigor, health and rosy complexions under 
her care. 

A most delicious dish which is as nutritious and invigorat¬ 
ing as it is tasty is made by grating young carrots and apples 
together. A good salad is made by combining carrots, apples, 
celery and nuts. 

Celery.— Celery is another of the wholesome and palatable 
additions to the bill of fare that of late years has been growing 
in popular favor. No matter how eaten, if properly masticated, 
it is always beneficial. Originally celery was for a long time 
considered poisonous, but now it is largely cultivated as a most 
healthful food in every civilized market in the world. 

As ordinarily grown the celery plant has no true stem, the 
chief endeavor of the grower being to enlarge the root and in¬ 
crease the size of the succulent basic leaves. It is the stalks or 
stems of these leaves which form the edible part. The seeds 
of celery also are very largely used for flavoring salads, soups 
and a variety of dishes. The fleshy root of the celery plant is 
used in soups; it is also prepared as a separate dish, being cut 
in small pieces, boiled until tender and then served like aspar¬ 
agus with a dressing of cream. 

There is a special turnip-rooted form of celery, known as 
celeriac, which produces a large root and very small leaf stems. 
This is more suitable for cooking than the common celery, 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


441 


although the edible portion of the latter makes a very palatable 
dish when stewed in butter with salt and pepper to taste. The 
principal value in celery, however, lies in its excellence of flavor 
and other desirable qualities when well blanched and served in 
the natural state. 

While celery may not possess much actual food value, it is 
very attractive, and its use is an important one from the fact 
that it furnishes an essential vegetable ingredient of a well 
regulated diet. To those who engage largely in brain work its 
effect is both soothing and invigorating. 

The Cucumber. —The cucumber is generally regarded as 
indigestible. The celebrated Dr. Abernethy is said to have 
given the following recipe for the preparation of cucumbers: 
“‘After peeling the cucumbers, slice them as finely as possible. 
Then sprinkle them well with salt. Place the salted slices inside 
a soup plate upon which place an inverted soup plate. Now 
shake the plates vigorously for five minutes, allowing the 
moisture to drain from the cucumbers. When this is done, 
shake them again. Now put them in a clean dish and pour 
plenty of vinegar over them with another dash of salt and 
pepper, then —throw them into the ash barrel!” Cucumbers 
prepared in this and similar fashions are undoubtedly indigesti¬ 
ble, but when eaten as one would eat an apple, without any 
“fixings,” without any additions whatever, except perhaps a 
little salt, they are palatable, nutritious and digestible. 
Even the skin which most people remove is perfectly digest¬ 
ible, and those who become accustomed to its flavor claim it is 
very palatable. 

The Tomato. —One of the most popular and common of 
the vegetables in use to-day is the tomato. It is supposed to 
have come from Peru. For a century or more it was cultivated 
chiefly as an ornamental plant, the food being regarded as 
poisonous and liable to cause cancer, and it was not until this 
strong but foolish and ignorant prejudice was removed, and 
people learned by experience its tastiness and harmlessness 
that it became a popular article of diet. 

Tomatoes are universally recognized as an invalid food by 

Vol. 1—28 




442 MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


medical men. This for 
the reason that their 
pulp and juice is not 
merely digestible, but 
contains an acid, which 
is at once a mild aper¬ 
ient and a promoter of 
gastric secretions. The 

Tomatoes keep the blood pure through the late Dl\ Bull, of NeW 
medium of the mild acid and cathartic, juices they 

contain. York City, always used 

to order raw tomatoes for his patients when they reached the 
solid food stage of recovery, 
because of their blood purifying 
and intestinal regulating pow¬ 
ers. At the General Memorial 
Hospital, New York City, 
better known as “The Cancer 
Hospital,” because the insti¬ 
tution makes a specialty of 
treating cases of the disease, 
tomatoes in season constitute 
an important part of the diet 
of convalescing patients. 

The following eulogy of the tomato has been pronounced • 
by Professor Charles Wickenham, of 
Guy’s Hospital, London: “It is bptli 
vegetable and fruit, partaking of the beau¬ 
ties and dietetic advantages of both. It 
makes superb soup, either alone or with 
other materials. It also makes ideal 
salads, catsups, pickles—green or ripe— 
sweet, spiced, and sour, or in mangoes. 
The tomato is equally delectable if sliced, 
baked, escalloped, dried, fried or stewed. 
It is a food for the athlete, and a delicious 
dish for the invalid. It is a food for the 
time e ceie J ry St is sald^to pro- s i c k and the well, the old and the young, 

mote sleep. 




As a blood-cleanser and stomach regu¬ 
lator, the lettuce has few rivals. 









OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


443 


the rich and the poor, the leisurely and the laboring, the saint 
and the sinner. It is the best of all vegetables as an article of 
diet. For the sick, especially if they suffer from stomach 
troubles, it is a gift from Heaven.” 

A dish of nothing but sliced tomatoes is one of the most 
healthful articles of diet, especially when eaten with what 
has been called a physical culture dressing. This dressing is 
made in a similar manner to French dressing, simply using 
lemon juice as a substitute for vinegar. The best way to make 
this dressing is to squeeze and strain the juice of one lemon, 
then mix and dissolve salt to taste, after which add from two 
to four times as much olive oil as you have lemon juice and stir 
in thoroughly. Many prefer a small quantity of mustard with 
the dressing, and if this is desired, it can be added though it 
is not recommended. However, this dressing can be made even 
without the use of salt if one so desires, and if some very finely 
chopped onions are added its tasty quality will be highly en¬ 
hanced. 

Various combinations can be used with tomatoes to ad¬ 
vantage; for instance, tomatoes and lettuce make a splendid 
salad. Tomatoes and cabbage can also be recommended. 
Tomatoes and water-cress go well together. In fact, almost 
any of the green vegetables that are ordinarily used for salads 
can be combined with tomatoes and the combination will, in 
every instance, have a splendid flavor. 

Herbs. —Parsley and mint have healthful qualities which 
make them beneficial in salads, though owing to their strong 
flavor very little is required for each dish. Most people regard 
these merely as garnishings for other dishes, but they may well 
be combined with other salads and eaten with pleasure and ad¬ 
vantage. 

Water-Cress. —The anti-scorbutic properties of water¬ 
cress have long been known, and this tasty and delicious 
^brook-grass” is used all over the world, not only by civilized 
but by aboriginal people, for its palatability as well as health¬ 
ful qualities. 

Another material for making salads is rapidly coming into 




444 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


vogue in the form of sweet peas with edible pods. When these 
are of the rich sweet variety, they form the basis for a most 
delicious salad. Spinach, young okra pods and leaves, kale, 
sweet peppers and chicory leaves may also be used as founda¬ 
tions for salads, or additions to others. 

Wild Salads. —There are a number of wild salads that 
can be added to the products of the garden with most beneficial 
effects. Among these may be mentioned the following: The 
leaves and tender stems of dock make a fine blood tonic, being 
rich in iron and other organic salts. Dock leaves can generally 
be picked wild from the middle of April to the middle of June, 
but if raised in a garden and not allowed to run to seed, tender 
leaves can be picked all through the summer into the late fall. 
Dandelion leaves and hearts are not only tasty but healthful. 
From time immemorial the dandelion has been used as an anti¬ 
scorbutic and excellent blood-purifier and in no form is it so 
beneficial as when eaten in its natural state. Its slightly bitter 
taste gives it an appetizing quality that many people much 
enjoy. Dandelion flowers have also been used to good ad¬ 
vantage in salads, both flowers and stems being used. 

Sour knot-weed, shoots of young woodbine, shepherd’s 
purse, nasturtium leaves, flowers and seeds, oxalis or wood- 
sorrel, mustard leaves, plantain, winter-cress, salad burnet, 
pimpinella, yarrow and the like can all be used to good ad¬ 
vantage in salads. 



A vegetarian repast, consisting of cherries, figs, plums, bananas, hazel nuts, pudding 
and bread. 







OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


445 


Nuts. —It is only a short time ago that nuts were con¬ 
sidered merely as a “digester” to be eaten at the close of a 
meal, or as a luxury to be eaten between meals. The idea that 
they should have a distinct place in one’s dietary was held by 
but few. It is a pleasing sign that this mental attitude is 
changed and thousands of people are making of them a regular 
article of diet, while the proportion of those who are living 
entirely upon a fruit-and-nut diet is rapidly and constantly 
increasing. 

There has been a wonderful change also in the common dis¬ 
regard with which our native nuts were held, such as the 
hickory and butternuts, walnuts, chestnuts, pecans, etc. The 
demand for foreign nuts, also, which used to be so small that 
few were imported, has so increased that the supply has grown 
until now they are within the reach of persons in all walks 
of life. 

This increase in the demand for nuts is due to the growing 
number of vegetarians, physical culturists and others who 
have learned that nuts are an excellent substitute for meat and 
other nitrogenous and fatty foods. The large use of nut-but¬ 
ters, nut-salads, nut-cakes, etc., and the use of nut-stock for 
soup have also increased the demand, as has the manufacture 
of special nut foods, such as malted nuts, protose and other 
meat substitutes. 

Of late years the pinyon nut, which for centuries has been 
used by the Indians of the Southwest as one of their chief 
articles of diet, has come extensively into use. A similar nut, 
though a little larger and not quite so rich in flavor, is the 
European species of the same nut, commonly known as the 
pignolia. It is a pointed white nut and may now be obtained, 
properly shelled and ready for use, in the majority of first 
class stores. 

The pistache nut, largely grown in California, has long 
been used and prized by confectioners for its delicate flavor 
and attractive green coloring. It is commonly used as a color¬ 
ing and flavor in ice cream. 

In purchasing nuts the proportion of refuse is important, 




446 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


as it varies from 16 per cent in chestnuts to 86 per cent in but¬ 
ternuts. 

Nuts are a highly concentrated food, containing little 
water and much fat. They are rich not only in protein, which 
enables them to supply all the nutrient qualities gained from 
meat, but when one masticates them to the point of complete 


Average composition of nuts and nut products. 


Edible portion. 


KIND OF FOOD. 

Refuse. 

Water. 

Protein. 

Fat. 

Cart 

dra 

Sugar, 

starch, 

etc. 

»ohy- 

ites. 

Crude 

fiber. 

Ash. 

Fuel 

value 

per 

pound. 









Calor¬ 

Nuts and nut products : 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Perct. 

Per ct. 

ies. ' 

Acorn, fresh. 

17.80 

34.7 

4.4 

4.7 

50.4 

4.2 

1.6 

1,265 

Almond. 

47.00 

4.9 

21.4 

54 4 

13.8 

3.0 

2.5 

2,895 

Beechnut . 

36.90 

6.6 

21.8 

49.9 

18.0 

3.7 

2,740 

Brazil nut.. 

49.35 

4.7 

17.4 

65.0 

5.7 

| 3.9 

3.3 

3,120 

Butternut. 

86.40 

4.5 

27.9 

61.2 


3.4 

3.0 

3,370 

Candle nut . 


5.9 

21.4 

61.7 

4.9" 

2.8 

3.3 

3,020 

Chestnut, fresh. 

15.70 

43.4 

6.4 

6.0 

41.3 

1.5 

1.4 

1,140 

Chestnut, drv. 

23.40 

6.1 

10.7 

7.8 

70.1 

2.9 

2.4 

1,840 

Horn chestnut or 









water chestnut . 


10.6 

10.9 

.7 

73.8 

1.4 

2.6 

1,540 

Chufa (earth almond) 


2.2 

3.5 

31.6 

50.2 

10.5 

2.0 

2,435 

Cocoanut. 

34.66 

13.0 

6.6 

56.2 

13.7 

8.9 

1.6 

2,805 

Filbert. 

52.08 

5.4 

16.5 

64.0 

11 

L.7 

2.4 

3,100 

Ginkgo nut (seeds)... 


47.3 

5.9 

.8 

43.1 | 

9 

2.0 

940 

Hickory nut. 

62.20 

3.7 

15.4 

67.4 

11 

L.4 

2.1 

3,345 

Lichi nut . 

41.60 

16.4 

2.9 

.8 

78.0 

1.9 

1,510 

Paradise nut . 

45.70 

2.3 

22.2 

62.6 

10.2 

2.7 

3,380 

Peanut . 

27.04 

7.4 

29.8 

43.5 

14.7 

2.4 

2.2 

2,610 

Pecan . 

50.10 

3.4 

12.1 

70.7 

8.5 

3.7 

1.6 

3,300 

Pine nut, Pinyon. 

40.6 

3.4 

14.6 

61.9 

17.3 


2.8 

3,205 

Pine nut, Spanish, or 







pignolia (shelled)... 


6.2 

33.9 

48.2 

6.5 

1.4 

3 8 

2 710 

Pistachio . 


4.2 

22.6 

54.5 

1. 

>.6 

3.1 

w • 1 XV* 

3,250 

Walnut. 

58.80 

3.4 

18.2 

60.7 

13.7 I 

2.3 

1.7 

3^075 

Almond butter . 


2.2 

21.7 

61.5 

11 O 

3.0 

3,340 

Almond paste. 


24.2 

13.1 

23.9 

9.Q 4. I 

7 8 

1.6 

1^900 

Peanut butter . 


2.1 

29.3 

46.5 

17.1 

5.0 

2*825 

Malted nuts . 


2.6 

23.7 

27.6 

4.3.9 

2.2 

2^600 

Cocoanut candy . 


3.9 

2 4 

11.9 

76.7 

4.5 

.6 

2*000 

Peanut candy . 


3.0 

10.3 

16.6 

66.9 

2.1 

1.1 

2415 

Chestnuts, preserved 






(marron glace) , air 









dried . 


18.2 

1.3 

.5 

797 

.3 

1,530 

Walnuts, preserved 






1 



in sirup, air dried... 


16.9 

13.6 

20.0 

48.6 

.9 

2 780 

Cocoanut milk . 


92.7 

.4 

1.5 

4.6 

.8 

w y I UV7 

155 

Cocoanut, desiccated 


3.5 

6.3 

57.4 

31.5 

1*3 

3,125 

Peanut coffee made 









from entire kernel.. 


5.1 

27 9 

5.1 

12.3 

2 4 

2.2 

2,805 

Almond meal . 


8.5 

50.6 

15.6 

16.0 

2.9 

6.4 

Commercial nut meal 


3.0 

29.0 

51.7 

12.1 

2.0 

2.2 


Chestnut flour. 

- 

7.8 

4.6 

3.4 

8C 

).8 

3 4 

1 780 

Cocoanut flour. 


14.4 

20.6 

2 1 

44V Q ! 

in 1 

6.9 

1 480 

Hazelnut meal. 


2.7 

11.7 

65.6 

17.8 

2^2 

i. j JCL7V/ 

3,185 








































































OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


447 



Diagram illustrating constituents of the chestnut. 


-745 <56 STARCH, SUGAR,ETC. 
s27°fi> CRUOEF/BER 
.'22 <J6 ASH 


S9°fo WATER 
107 <56 RROTE/H 
TQ <56 FAT 


emulsification 
and liquifica- 
tion, they are 
far better for 
the nourish¬ 
ment of the 
body than the 
finest and 
most nutritive 


cuts of meat. Indeed, it is claimed that nuts contain chemical 
salts and other properties that are especially valuable in keep¬ 
ing the muscles of the arteries elastic and pliable and thus pre¬ 
venting the deposition of limy substances in the arteries which, 
more perhaps than any other one thing, makes men grow old. 

The flavor of nuts largely depends upon the oils which they 
contain, though a few species have a distinct flavoring matter 
of their own aside from the oils. As the oil in nuts readily be¬ 
comes rancid, they should never be kept too long or be ex¬ 
posed to a higher temperature than necessary, as this hastens 
the process by which they become rancid. Those who have 
eaten a rancid nut know how intensely disagreeable the flavor 
is. 

Some nuts, like the chestnut, peanut, tabebuia, etc., are 
generally eaten roasted, and the roasted flavor that most 
people enjoy is largely dependent upon the browned oils, 
starches or other carbohydrates. 

Nuts have a reputation for indigestibility, but this comes 
from their imperfect mastication. When people have eaten 
a hearty meal 
and then 


hastily swal¬ 
low a hand¬ 
ful of nuts, 
these are like¬ 
ly to pro¬ 
duce indiges¬ 
tion. Thor- 


PROTF/A/ /66 <56 
FAT 634 <56 
STARCHSUGARETC l3S°fo 


CRUDEF/BER 26 % 


WATER 2.5 ^b 


ASH /4°fo 



Analysis Of a walnut showing the relative proportions Of the 
various food elements. 














448 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


oughly masticated they are the most digestible of foods. In 
experiments conducted by the United States Government the 
protein of nuts was found to be more digestible than that of 
fruits. 

The popular belief that the eating of salt with nuts renders 
them more digestible is a pure superstition which has no foun¬ 
dation. 

Nut Products. —There are several nut products, such as 
nut-butter, nut-oils, nut-milk, nut-pastes, nut-preserves, nut- 
flour, nut-candies and nut-coffee, which, having decidedly nu¬ 
tritive values, are growing rapidly in popular favor. 

There is such a demand for peanut butter that it is now 
sold in many cities in ton lots. 

Nut-butter may be easily made at home. There are a va¬ 
riety of mills for grinding nuts from which one may select at 
any first class hardware store, though if it is not convenient for 
one to use a mill, the nuts may be pounded in a mortar. Many 
of the staple food-grinders are provided with special discs 
for grinding nuts that may be inserted at will. Nut-butter 
will keep well if sealed in glass or earthenware jars. 
Tin cans may also be used, but they are not quite so 
desirable. 

It is well here to call attention to one point in connection 
with the use of nut-butters which is little known. It is better 
to take the amount of butter that one expects to use at a meal, 
and instead of serving it in its original ground condition, to 
mix it thoroughly with about the same quantity of cold water 
with a tiny pinch of salt. This makes a delicious cream of 
it, is more easily spread upon the bread and more readily mas¬ 
ticated, and, because of its dilution with water, is in a far bet¬ 
ter condition for the average person to digest than in its high¬ 
ly concentrated form. If one likes the flavor of olive oil, a 
little of this may be added to the water. 

These nut-butters are entirely different from the so-called 
cocoanut or cocoa-butter which is sold under a variety of trade 
names and made by extracting and refining the fat of the 
coeoanut or copra, It resembles fine beef-fat in appearance 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


449 


and is naturally white in color and is solid at ordinary temper¬ 
atures. It is used as a substitute for butter and in various 
culinary ways. 

Chocolate and cocoa are both products of the cocoa bean, 
the former being much richer in fat than the latter. The fat 
that is extracted in the manufacture of cocoa is called cocoa¬ 
butter, but is an entirely different product from the cocoanut 
butter before mentioned. 

In many parts of Europe, South America and elsewhere 
salad oils are made from the almond, walnut, beechnut, Brazil 
nut, cocoanut and peanut. These nut oils, which are practi¬ 
cally pure fat, have a very high fuel value, and, being readily 
assimilated with other food materials, may be made to consti¬ 
tute an important energy-yielding constituent of one's diet. 

Cocoanut-milk is practically water stored in the cocoanut 
shell, containing only a little mineral matter, sugar, etc, in so¬ 
lution. It is very pure, and is a far safer beverage in the coun¬ 
tries where it grows than is water from the springs or streams 
which are often more, or less contaminated with organic mat¬ 
ter. This liquid, however, is not at all the same as the nut- 
milks which are often referred to in books devoted to nut cook¬ 
ery. These latter are nothing more-than nut-butters reduced 
by mixing them with water. 

A delicious milky liquid may be obtained by pouring about 
a pint of boiling water on a freshly grated cocoanut, allow¬ 
ing it to stand until cold, and then straining it. If allowed 
to stand long enough a cream will rise to the top and this may 
be served with fruits and used in other ways. Those rigid 
vegetarians who wish to exclude even milk from their dietary 
will find this liquid and cream both palatable and invigorating. 

Nut-pastes and nut-preserves are generally made only by 
confectioners, and while they contain large nutritive qualities 
they are generally made so rich as to belong rather to the need¬ 
less and harmful luxuries than to the beneficial articles of a 
sensible man’s diet. 

Nut-flours and nut-meals are coming into more general use, 
though as yet they have but a limited sale. As a rule they are 




450 MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


made from the ordinary nuts by blanching, thoroughly drying 
and grinding. There is a great difference between “blanching” 
nuts and “bleaching” them. The former means the simple 
process of immersing nut-meats for a short time in hot water 
and then rubbing off the skins; the latter is a process of sul¬ 
phurizing nuts for the purpose of improving their outward 
appearance and thus commanding higher prices. This is often 
done by exposing the nuts to sulphur vapor, or treating them 
with a mixture of sal-soda, chloride of lime and water. This 
latter in no way increases the food value of the nuts, and will 
doubtless be continued no longer than the public desires it. 

Nuts sold in their shells should be washed before being 
put on the table. Where shelled nuts are purchased in bulk, 
they too should be washed before being used. Hot water 
poured over them not only imparts a fresh flavor and appear¬ 
ance, but also removes any acrid taste. 

Nut-and-Fruit Diet. —Change to the nut-and-fruit diet 
should be made gradually. If one cares to go through a milk 
diet for a few weeks as a preparation, a # full diet of fruit and 
nuts will usually prove agreeable and satisfactory. 

Beginners upon the nut-and-fruit diet, if they are habitu¬ 
ated to taking three meals, should make the first meal of 
the day on an orange, an apple, a banana, or a small saucer¬ 
ful of berries only: The principal meal should be eaten at ' 
noon. A small variety of nuts, such as peanuts, walnuts. 



A cross section of the pecan. 






OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


451 


filberts, almonds and Brazil nuts should be taken with such 
fruits as bananas, figs, dates or raisins. The greatest care 
must be taken thoroughly to masticate these foods to a com¬ 
plete liquid. This is essential also for the emulsification of 
the fats which form a large part of the nutritive element of 
nuts. These fats are digested easily if properly emulsified in 
the mouth and mingled with the saliva. Otherwise they are dif¬ 
ficult to digest and liable to cause intestinal indigestion. Sup¬ 
per should be similar to breakfast. If the two-meal-a-day plan 
is adopted, the first meal can be eaten about 11 a. m., and 
the principal meal at 6 p. m. 

The following table gives the daily record of one fruit- 
and-nut eater, whose experience extended over a considerable 
period and who lived upon two meals a day with one kind of 
nuts only at each meal. If unusual mental or physical effort 
was to be made, the quantity of food was slightly increased. 


WEIGHT IN OUNCES. 


FOOD. 

Meal 

one. 

Meal 

two. 

Total. 

Water. 

Pro- 

teids. 

Fats. 

Carbo¬ 

hydrates. 

Salts 
or Ash. 

Heat 

Units. 

Brazil nuts . 

1% 

m 

3 

.159 

.510 

2.000 

.210 

.117 

612 

Dates. 

2 

3 

5 

.770 

.105 

.140 

3.920 

.065 

505 

Figs. 

2 H 

Va 

3 

.564 

.129 

.009 

2.230 

.072 

276 

Bananas. 

8 Y 2 

6 V 2 

15 

11.300 

.195 

.090 

3.300 

.120 

435 

Apples. 


8 V 2 

8 V 2 

7.190 

.034 

.043 

1.210 

.026 

153 

Olives, ripe. 

Time . 

a. m. 
7.00 

2% 
p. m. 
6.00 

2% 

1.720 

.045 

.796 

.114 

.090 

200 

Totals. 



37.273 oz. 

21.703 

1.018 

3.078 

10.984 

.490 

2181 


Total food, less contained water, 15.57 ounces. 


Remarks: Before eating each meal general physical exercise was taken for fifteen minutes. After 
each meal 5 ounces of water were drunk. A feeling of exhilaration followed each meal. 


As to the pecuniary economy resulting from the use of 
nuts, scientific experimentation indicates that nothing is to 
be said in favor of the nut, except in the case of the peanut 
and this is not a nut at all, but a legume, one of the family 
of peas and beans. Still, it is popularly considered as a nut, 
and will be so treated here. Ten cents spent for peanuts will 





























452 MACF AD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


purchase more than twice the protein and six times the en¬ 
ergy that can be gained from ten cents worth of porter¬ 
house steak. In comparison with the almond, the peanut is 
far more to be desired. The almond supplies only about 
one-fourth the protein and less than one-third the energy sup¬ 
plied by the peanut. 

Peanuts. —The American people are now using yearly 
about four million bushels of peanuts, at a cost of $10,000,- 
000. This quantity is all the more enormous in view of the 
fact that nearly all these peanuts are eaten at odd times, as 
a delicacy, and not as a regular food at meal-time. The ma¬ 
jority of the people who thus use them also eat extensively of 
meat and other foods containing the same elements found in 
peanuts. So, by using the peanut as a regular article of diet, 
and by getting along without these between-meal extras, thou¬ 
sands of people could greatly decrease their living expenses and 
remarkably increase their health and efficiency. 

As food, peanuts may be used in a great many ways. They 
are very good shelled and eaten as ordinary nuts, either raw or 
roasted. If any variety of candy is healthful, surely those 
kinds of confectionery composed largely of peanuts—such 






Stuffed Beets. —Boil as many beets as needed until tender. When cold, peel 
and cut slice from stem end so beet can stand. Scoop out center. Fill with lemon 
juice and let stand. Meanwhile prepare chopped celery with mayonnaise and when 
ready to serve spill out lemon juice and fill with celery. Serve on bed of lettuce. 



Brussels Sprouts. —Wash and carefully pick over the sprouts and cook in boil¬ 
ing salted water for twenty minutes. Drain, chop finely, reheat and season with 
butter, pepper and salt. Decorate with hard-boiled egg arranged as petals as in 
illustration. 


433 







OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 455 


as peanut crisp (made of peanuts and sugar and sometimes 
cocoanut), and the chocolate-dipped meats—ought to be 
wholesome. Then there is peanut butter. While non-physical 
culturists generally consider peanut butter as a sort of picnic 
dainty, many people use it regularly as a substitute for ordi¬ 
nary butter. Chopped peanuts, not made into butter, make 
an excellent ingredient for sandwiches. These chopped meats 
are also delicious when baked in bread. They may be com¬ 
bined with sweet fruits for making wholesome fruit cakes, or 
with many fruits and vegetables as salads. 

Another way in which peanuts are used as a food is in the 
form of peanut oil, which is often used as a substitute for 
olive oil. The peanut possesses other virtues than those of a 
dietetic sort, and, unlike many crops, it enriches instead of 
impoverishing the soil in which it grows. 

Uncooked peanuts are much more nutritious than are those 
that have been subjected 
to the action of fire, and 
what is more, they are 
appetizing and even de¬ 
licious w r hen one becomes 
accustomed to them. A 
taste for roasted peanuts 
is artificial. It is due to 
custom rather than natu¬ 
ral desire. But to get the 
true flavor of the peanut 
and to extract from it all 
its nourishing qualities, 
you must eat it au nature!, 
that is, before it has been 
steamed or roasted or 
what-not. Of course, a 
raw peanut calls for much 
more mastication than 
does one that has been 
cooked, but this is a mani- 



Roots of peanut vine, showing the value 
this plant as a nitrogen gatherer. 











456 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


fest advantage in a dietetic sense. If you try to “bolt” an 
uncooked peanut before your teeth have done their full duty 
to it, your digestive organs are likely to suffer in consequence. 
On the other hand, a well chewed raw peanut is most digestible. 

After a time, you will prefer the raw to the roasted nut, and 
as the nutritive value of a food to a very great extent depends 
on our enjoyment of it, this too is quite a consideration. It is 
perhaps unnecessary to add that the brown-red skin which 
surrounds the kernel should be removed before eating. 

Fruits. —In most families fruit is used more as a food- 
accessory, an appetizer, or a luxury, than because of its dis¬ 
tinctive food value. This is a great mistake. Instead of being 
looked upon as a “side-dish,” fruit should be regarded as one 
of the most important and principal articles of diet. 

Indeed, the acreage of fruit-growing lands in the United 
States should rapidly increase to many times its present extent, 
invading the vast, sparsely settled territories now devoted most 
uneconomically to the raising of animals for food, since the 
American people ought to consume five times the amount of 
fruit they now do, to the exclusion of other and less beneficial 
articles of food. Certainly the result would be a tremendous 
increase of their healthfulness, vigor and consequent happiness. 

To every unperverted taste fruit is palatable, stimulating 
to the appetite and health-giving. It is a natural food, rich 
in all nutrient elements, easily digestible to the normal stomach 
and with nothing disagreeable in its handling from the time 
of the planting of the tree from which it comes to the moment 
of its appearing on the table of the consumer. 

Edible fruits show great range in form, color, and appear¬ 
ance, and are found in almost countless varieties; yet from the 
botanist’s standpoint all our fruits are the seed-bearing por¬ 
tion of the plant. The edible fruits of temperate regions fall 
into a few groups—stone fruits, like cherries and plums; pome 
fruits, like apples and pears; grapes; and berries, like straw¬ 
berries, blackberries and currants. 

There are several products, such as muskmelons, canta¬ 
loupes and watermelons, sometimes classed as fruits and some- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


457 


times as vegetables, which, of course, would not belong to any 
one of these groups. Tropical fruits are not so easily classi¬ 
fied, though the citrus family (oranges, lemons, etc.), includes 
many of the more common kinds. 

There are a few vegetable products, which are not fruits in 
any botanical sense, but which by common consent are included 
in this class of food products, since their place in the diet is the 
same. The most common of these products is rhubarb, and 
there are few uses of fruit which the acid rhubarb stalk does 
not serve. 

As a country becomes more thickly settled, less and less 
reliance can be placed on the output of wild fruits, and the 
market gardener and fruit grower become of increasing im¬ 
portance. In the United States, strawberries, blackberries and 
raspberries are examples of fruits which are still growing wild 
and are cultivated as well, and cranberries have so recently 
come under cultivation that many persons still think of them 
as a wild fruit. 

The commercial fruit grower, of course, desires a fruit of 
good appearance, having satisfactory shipping and keeping 
qualities, and too often the consumer is satisfied to accept a 
product in which such qualities predominate. Discriminating 
purchasers, however, will insist on good flavor, texture, and 
cooking qualities as well, and such demands should be more 
often urged in order that quality may replace appearance as a 
standard in cultivating fruit for market. 

Fruit Market Improvements. —The fruit market has 
been very greatly modified and extended by improved methods 
of transportation and storage. A man need not be so very old 
to remember well the time when, at least in the Northern States, 
bananas were a comparative rarity outside the large cities, and 
oranges and lemons, though commoner commodities, were still 
luxuriously high in price. In the summer there was an abun¬ 
dance of the common garden fruits, but in winter apples were 
virtually the only fruits that were at all plentiful. A few years 
have witnessed a great change, and now there is hardly a village 
so small that bananas and other tropical and sub-tropical fruits 




458 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


cannot be purchased at reasonable prices, all the year around. 

Indeed, bananas are now sometimes spoken of as “the poor 
man’s fruit.” The exceedingly low cost of this fruit is due to 
the wide distribution of the plant, its continuous and prolific 
yield, and the adaptability of the fruit to easy and cheap trans¬ 
portation, since it can be sent in the hardy, green state, and 
ripened after arrival at its destination. 

At the present time there are a number of fruits, such as 
avocados, or “alligator pears,” mangoes and sapodillas, which 
are fairly well known in our large markets but seldom seen 
in smaller towns. The enormous development of the fruit¬ 
growing industry in California and Florida, which includes 
the products of both temperate and warm regions, as well as 
the possibilities of supplying the northern markets with trop¬ 
ical fruits from Porto Rico and Hawaii, make it probable 
that within a few years the avocado, the mango, and other 
tropical fruits will be as well known as the grapefruit or the 
pineapple. 

Improvements in transportation have materially length¬ 





ened the season of many 
fruits, such as straw¬ 
berries, which cannot be 
stored for any consider- 
a b 1 e period. Further¬ 
more, improved methods 
of culture and transporta¬ 
tion have extended the 
growing area of old and 
well-known varieties. 


Courtesy of Department of Agriculture. 


In preparing such 
fruits as plums, peaches, 
etc., for the table, the 
skin may be readily re¬ 
moved, without injury to 
the flavor, by first im- 




time in boiling hot water. 












OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


459 


A silver knife should always be used for paring apples, 
pears and other fruits. When a steel knife is used, the acid of 
the fruit acts on the iron of the knife and frequently causes a 
black discoloration, and there is also very commonly a notice¬ 
able metallic flavor. If pared or cut fruit is exposed to the 
air, it rapidly turns dark in color, owing to the action of 
oxidases (as some of the ferments normally present in fruits 
are called) upon the more readily oxydizable bodies, which are 
also normal fruit constituents. 

Fruit Sugars. —It should be noted that the principal 
sugars in fruit are cane-sugar, grape-sugar, and fruit-sugar, 
and that the kind and amount of these sugars depend largely 
upon the state of growth and degree of ripeness to which the 
fruit has been allowed to come. Unripe fruit has much less 
food value, especially in the sugars, than ripe fruit, but, on 
the other hand, over-ripe fruit has already begun to lose its 
palatable, healthful and nutritive qualities by the process of 
fermentation. 

As fruits grow to their full size and ripen they undergo 
marked changes in chemical composition, both as to the total 
and the relative amount of the different chemical properties 
present. A knowledge of these changes, not only while the 
fruit is on the tree, but after it is placed in storage, is very 
important both from the housekeeper’s and from the com¬ 
mercial standpoint. After being stored some fruits materially 
improve while others deteriorate very rapidly. Every intelli¬ 
gent housewife should seek to inform herself as to these mat¬ 
ters so that she will avoid the loss consequent upon errors. 
For instance, certain pears and plums improve and ripen after 
being picked, while other varieties of fruits rapidly deteriorate 
the longer they are kept. As every housewife knows, under¬ 
ripe fruit is most satisfactory for jelly-making, since artificial 
cooking is a completing of the natural sun-cooking, while fruit 
that is to be eaten raw should always be as ripe as possible. 

Studies made to determine the ease or rapidity of the diges¬ 
tion of different fruits in the stomach indicate that fruits com¬ 
pare favorably with other common foods in these respects, 

Vol. 1—29 




460 MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Digestion, of course, is influenced by the nature of the fruit and 
its stage of ripeness. 

Beaumont states that sour apples eaten uncooked require 
two hours for digestion in the stomach and mellow apples one 
and a half hours. Another observer notes that about five 
ounces of raw ripe apples require three hours and ten minutes 
for digestion in the stomach, but that, if the fruit is unripe, and 
consequently contains a high proportion of cellulose, a much 
longer time may be required. 

Little is definitely known regarding the relative digestion 
and absorption of fruits in the intestines, but experiments indi¬ 
cate that as a class ripe fruits are quite thoroughly digestible, 
and it is evident that, generally speaking, fruits, like other 
foods, usually remain in the intestinal tract long enough for 
the body to absorb the nutritive material present, and that 
therefore the rate of intestinal digestion would not be a matter 
of special importance. 

Over-ripe fruit is often injurious, very probably because 
of fermentation having begun, and stale or partially decayed 
fruit is obviously undesirable for food purposes. In addition 
to a deterioration in flavors there is always the possibility of 
digestive disturbance if such fruit is eaten raw. 

It has been found that the injurious effects of raw unripe 
fruit are not so much due to the chemical constituents, but 
rather to the unusual proportions in which the constituents 
occur, and especially the large percentage of hard cell tissues, 
which, if imperfectly masticated, may be a source of digestive 



The shaded portion of the apple shown above 


derangement. Possibly 
the excess of acid in the 
green fruit is also a cause 
of digestive disturbance. 
Cooked green fruit was 
found to be practically 
harmless, being espe¬ 
cially palatable and 
wholesome when cooked 


represents refuse. Only twenty-five per cent *j.u o, 
of the apple is non-nutritlous. Wltil SUgar. 













OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


461 


Investigations have shown that fruits exposed to street 
dust and to other unfavorable conditions become covered with 
bacteria, which are always present in such dust-laden air, and 
may become sources of contagion. Flies and other insects are 
also known to be a source of dirt and contamination. 

It is often urged that the washing of fruit destroys its flavor. 
On the other hand, skillful housewives maintain that if prop¬ 
erly done the loss of flavor is inappreciable, and on the grounds 
of common sense and cleanliness it would seem best to sacrifice 
a little flavor, if necessary, for the sake of removing filth and 
possibly dangerous bodies, even if the amount of dirt present 
is too small to be offensive to sight or taste. 

The Apple.— Of all fruits the apple is one of the most 
widely cultivated and best appreciated. It is hardy and grows 
in localities too cold for either the plum or peach. In its wild 
state it is known as the crab-apple, and is distributed through¬ 
out America, Europe and Western Asia. Charred crab-apples 
are found among the kitchen refuse of the prehistoric Lake- 
Dwellers of Switzerland, showing that they were a common 
article of food in the most ancient times. 

That fruit is healthful is stated rather forcefully by an 
English writer, who says: “It will beggar a doctor to live 
where apple orchards thrive.” Mr. John Burroughs offers 
statistics showing that certain operatives in Cornwall, in a 
time of scarcity, found apples in some manner a substitute for 
meat. They could work on baked apples without meat, when 
a potato diet was not sufficient. To its healthfulness he bears 
witness: “Especially to those whose soil in life is inclined to be 
a little bit clayey and heavy is the apple a winter necessity. It 
is a natural antidote to most of the ills the flesh is heir to. It is 
a gentle spur and tonic to the whole biliary system.” 

It may be safely said that, excepting the various kinds of 
grains, there is no product of the earth in this country which 
is so good for food as the apple. This noble fruit is no mere 
palate-pleaser; it is very nutritious, as it contains acids mild 
and gentle, as well as pleasing to the taste, which act in a 
beneficent manner upon the whole animal economy. 




462 MA CFA DDE N J S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


The apple acts beneficially upon the liver and will correct a 
sour stomach almost immediately. It is valuable in curing 
hemorrhoid disturbances and prevents the development of 
stones in the bladder and liver. It agglutinates the surplus 
acids of the stomach, and helps the kidney secretions. 

The Banana. —But few understand the value of bananas 
as a food. In hot countries, where it usually grows, it is a 
staple article of nourishment, and there it can be obtained 
completely ripened. In this condition it has a delicious taste 
that is very seldom found in the bananas that are secured 
throughout North America and England, where in nearly all 
cases it is eaten entirely too green. As a rule it is not allowed 
to ripen properly. In many cases it is cut too green, though 
usually the bananas that come to America, if they are ripened 
under proper conditions, will retain nearly all the nutritive 
properties as well as delicious flavor of the fruit. I have known 
many athletes of more than ordinary ability to live almost 
entirely on bananas for an extended period, and their strength 
was kept up to a high degree under the influence of the food. 

The most delicious bananas that we get here are raised in 
Jamaica. When the bananas arrive, they are very green. 
They are stored away in warehouses and allowed to ripen until 
they are ready for eating. This ripening process is most im¬ 
portant, if the banana is to retain its full, delicious flavor. 
Where they have been cut too green, they never acquire a 
proper flavor and under such circumstances they often ripen 
with a dark, solid substance in the center. When this dark 
substance is noted, the banana has not been properly ripened, 
or else it has been cut before it was sufficiently matured. Hap¬ 
pily, the habit of cooking the banana has not as yet developed. 
It is far better in its raw state. 

A banana that has been ripened properly, has in nearly all 
cases the appearance of the complexion of a much-freckled 
boy, the only difference being that the freckles on a banana are 
black instead of brown. When you can find bananas that are 
freckled in this manner, you will know that they are properly 
ripened, and if you will buy them and put them away until the 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


463 


skin becomes very dark or, in fact, actually black, if the inside 
of the banana still remains solid, you will be amazed at the 
palatability and flavor of the fruit. 

Even those bananas that do not freckle as they ripen will 
develop a flavor that will be pleasing in every instance, and in 
many cases even delicious, if you place them in a dry atmos¬ 
phere with a moderate temperature and a certain amount of 
sunlight; also cut off the lower part of the stem and place it in 
water. This process will enable the bananas to retain their 
life as long as possible, so that the fruit will secure* its full 
supply of flavor. It will then taste like nothing you have ever 
eaten before. It will have almost the same delicious flavor that 
it possesses when picked ripe from the tree. 

Some of the ordinary yellow bananas eaten everywhere are 
nothing more than green fruit. When the inside of a banana 
begins to decay before the outside starts to blacken it is a sign 
that it has not been properly ripened and is therefore not fit 
to eat. 

There are various ways of eating bananas that increase their 
value as a food, and add to the delicious qualities of the fruit. 
Sliced and eaten with cream they make a delicious dessert. 
Sliced and mixed with a chopped acid fruit of any kind— 
oranges, apples, peaches, pears—likewise makes a delicious 
dessert if slightly sweetened and eaten with cream. Sliced 
bananas are especially delicious with olive oil. If the sweet 
taste is not especially pleasant, a little lemon juice can be added 
to the oil. Bananas, combined with sliced acid fruit, if eaten 
with olive oil, make a very delicious dish. Bananas and pitted 
dates with cream make a splendid combination. Bananas 
mixed w T ith any of the sweet fruits, with olive oil added, will be 
found delicious. 

Bananas make a splendid sweet salad, and when sprinkled 
with ground nuts and some chopped acid fruit, they will be 
found delicious. Dried bananas can be purchased everywhere 
throughout England, though they are not sold to any great 
extent in America. In this form they are almost as sweet as 
a fig. Flour has been made from bananas and can be used for 




464 MACFAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


various dishes, just as ordinary wheat flour is used. Coffee 
made of bananas—which makes a delicious substitute for the 
ordinary coffee without its stimulating qualities—is also manu¬ 
factured. 

Grapes. —Grapes are not only a rich and delicious luxury, 
but have great value as an article of food, either in their fresh 
condition, or when dried and called raisins. Fresh, ripe grapes 
contain much sugar, sometimes nearly twenty per cent, in its 
purest and most digestible form. 

Whether grapes are eaten fresh or one partakes of their 
juice, the physiological effects upon the body in health or 
disease are of inestimable value. The juice not only contains 
considerable nutritive value, but the healthful and natural acids 
promote excretion and secretion, stimulating the healthful 
action of the kidneys, liver and bowels, and have a decidedly 
enriching and purifying effect upon the blood. 

The dextrin contained in grape-sugar promotes the secre¬ 
tion of pepsin and in this way is a helpful aid to digestion. The 
phosphoric acid which it contains in large quantities feeds the 
brain and nerves, healthfully stimulating them to perfect and 
complete action. To those who use grapes or grape-juice 
habitually, the use of cathartics or pernicious mineral-waters 
will be unnecessary. Grapes healthfully produce the natural 
bowel movement that the cathartic and mineral-waters produce, 
artificially and injuriously. 

. In the cure of disease, grapes and grape-juice rightfully 
hold a most honored place. Indeed, the “grape cure” has been 
in operation for many years, both in this country and in 
Europe, and thousands of grateful and happy people, relieved 
from the incubus of disease, can be found singing loudly praises 
of the treatment. 

This cure is being used successfully as a remedy in cases of 
catarrh of the stomach, intestinal catarrh, diseases of the 
digestive organs, heart affections, dyspepsia, loss of appetite, 
sluggish movement of the bowels, hemorrhoids, jaundice, sup¬ 
pressed menstruation, affections of the skin, and in numerous 
other diseases. The sum and substance of the grape cure is 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


465 


that it is a cleansing and purifying of the system. Fasting or 
an abstemious diet is recommended in connection with the grape 
treatment. 

The cure is begun by eating one or two pounds of grapes 
the first day, then increasing the daily allowance one-half 
pound each day until the desired quantity is reached. Usually 
the amount of grapes varies between three and nine pounds 
daily. A prescribed diet or a complete fast should precede the 
treatment, though benefit will, of course, be derived even if 
this suggestion is not followed. The treatment should not be 
dropped suddenly after a cure is effected. Instead, the 
quantity should he gradually diminished each day. 

The fruit used in treatment must be completely ripe. The 
grapes should not be crushed by the teeth, but pressed by the 
tongue against the roof of the mouth. There are a considerable 
number of people who feel an aversion for grapes because of 
the blunting sensation of the teeth that follows eating them. 
In cases of this kind, freshly pressed juice is advised. Under 
ordinary conditions, when grapes are eaten in small quantities 
and with other food, it does not make much difference whether 
or not the skins and seeds of the grapes are swallowed, but 
where grapes are made to be the exclusive, or nearly exclusive 
diet, as in the grape cure, it is advisable to reject the skins and 
seeds. 

In the systematic cures practiced in the sanitariums in 
Europe, the day’s allowance of grapes allotted to each patient 
is divided into three portions. The first portion is substituted 
for breakfast, or, where the patients cannot be induced to omit 
their breakfast, the grapes are taken an hour later; the second 
portion of grapes is taken in the forenoon, an hour before the 
regular meal; the third portion is taken in the afternoon 
between three and four o’clock. In some sanitariums a fourth 
portion of grapes is allowed to be eaten late in the day. 

Olives. —The olive is a most useful article of diet. Unfor¬ 
tunately, in this country its use has been confined largely to 
the unripe green olive, eaten not as an article of definite food 
value, but as an appetizer or tid-bit. Fortunately, a great 




466 MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


campaign of education has been carried on by the State of 
California showing the value of ripe olives and olive oil as 
regular articles of diet, so that their use is rapidly increasing. 

The so-called Greek olives have but a limited sale in 
America, being almost exclusively used by citizens of foreign 
birth, and those who have acquired the taste abroad. These 
olives are picked when ripe and dried like prunes. They are 
then sprinkled with olive oil and so eaten. The flavor is 
peculiar but appetizing. Greek olives are invariably sold by 
weight, whereas the ordinary olive is sold by the bottle or jar. 

The ripe olive, preserved in brine, is practically a Cali¬ 
fornian product. It has a tint akin to that of a ripe damson 
and a nutty, rich flavor of a unique kind. Also, it contains 
much oil. Cut it across and gently squeeze it and the oil 
becomes very evident to the eye. Like all home-grown olives, 
there seems to be some little difficulty in preserving it in the 
ordinary way. So that, after undergoing a proper process of 
“pickling,” it is placed in tins or bottles in company with a 
weak solution of brine, and “processed” or hermetically sealed. 

As has been intimated, olives when ripe are true nutrients. 
The California station of the Department of Agriculture has 
recently issued an analysis of the relative nutritive qualities of 
the ripe and green olive as follows: 

Fat (oil) Carbohydrates Protein 

per cent. per cent. per cent. 


Ripe ... 25.52 3.75 5.65 

Green. 12.90 1.78 6.91 


By this it will be seen that while the ripe olive is very rich 
in the elements that make warmth and “energy,” it is by no 
means deficient in the flesh-forming protein. The green olive 
lacks fat but also has its due share of protein. In both forms, 
it compares favorably with the great majority of the most 
nutritive of vegetable foods. 

In all the olive-growing countries of Europe, the pickled 
fruit—green or ripe—is used as a staple article of diet. In 
Spain, for example, the peasant takes a piece of brown bread 
and a pocketful of small olives and labors in the fields all day 






OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


467 


without any other nourishment. In Europe, Central and South 
America, the use of the olive as food—not a relish—is far more 
general than it is in the United States. 

The green olive in its raw state is bitter and astringent. 
The ripe, raw olive has a sour and persistent bitter flavor also. 
In both instances, the unpalatable quality is removed by a 
pickling process. The fruit averages from 150 to 250 to the 
pound. Both pulp and pit contain oil. In the case of all other 
fruit, it is only the pit that furnishes oil. Only the ripe olive 
is used for oil-making purposes, the green fruit having but 
very little oil in its pulp. In the case of the ripe olive, the oil 
will run as high as eighty-eight per cent; with the green it rarel} 
rises above two to four per cent. 

In this country, the olive is eaten as a relish before or 
during meals, with salads, as an accompaniment to cold dishes, 
and so forth. Some beverages are served with an olive in the 
bottom of the glass as a sort of agreeable aftermath to the 
drink itself. A variety of delicious sandwiches may be made 
with the help of the olive. Thus, there are walnut and olive, 
lettuce and olive, cheese and olive, and plain olive sandwiches. 
But the olive is worthy of a better place than that of a side 
dish. A dozen or less of the ripe fruit, a couple of slices of 
whole meal bread, and a glass of milk make a lunch that is at 
once tempting, satisfying and healthful. The ripe olive also 
furnishes a new sensation to the vegetarian epicure. One med¬ 
ical enthusiast declares that: “No product on earth contains 
as much nutrition as the ripe olive. The oil is equal to meat; 
the pulp is as good as bread.” 

Olive Oil. —Pure olive oil, like the olive itself, is a true 
food. What is more, its elements are such that it can be used in 
quantities that, in the case of practically all other fats, would 
cause nausea. When employed for cooking purposes, it imparts 
some of its agreeable flavor to the edible. It mellows salad 
dressing, and can be used as a palatable and wholesome adjunct 
to a number of other foods. It is especially useful when taken 
in connection with those nutritives that, while possessing plenty 
of protein, lack carbohydrates or fats, such as beans, peas, 




468 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


lentils and the like. In the case of pastry, the oil “shortens” 
readily. To those vegetarians who object to the use of animal 
fats of any kind, olive oil is a boon indeed. 

Within a comparatively recent period, olive oil has taken its 
place among rational and certain curatives. Its tonic value 
has, to a very great extent, caused it to replace the nauseous 
cod-liver oil of the old days. As a remedy for constipation, 
when combined with other physical culture methods, its power 
for good is remarkable. It is now used by a large number of 
medical men as a remedy for indigestion and nervous dys¬ 
pepsia. In the case of any troubles of the digestive organs, its 
continued use brings benefit. When taken judiciously, it will 
almost always bring about a change for the better in the 
appearance of those who are unduly thin. 

The mineral salts are contained in fruits in the most per¬ 
fect form for immediate assimilation into the body, and for 
growing children whose bony structure is not yet complete a 
large use of fruits cannot fail to be highly beneficial. There 
is also a natural desire for acids in the body which is as persist¬ 
ent as is the desire for food itself, and these acids are supplied 
to perfection in the citric, malic and other acids found in fruits. 
Especially are the citrus fruits valuable to meet this demand. 
These are the orange, lemon, grape-fruit, kumquat (a small 
orange which is eaten entire, both skin and pulp) and the lime. 

To those who are in the habit of abstaining largely from the 
use of mineral salt in their dietary and who refuse to use 
vinegar, these fruits supply their places in most healthful and 
satisfactory manner. The salts of the orange are clearly dis¬ 
cerned by those whose 


mineral salt, and the 


taste buds are not viti¬ 
ated by the overuse of 


lime and lemon are im¬ 
measurably to be pre¬ 
ferred in the making of 
salads to any kind of 
vinegar. 



Courtesy of Department of Agriculture. 


As illustrated above the fig contains little 
waste matter, ar.d is almost entirely com¬ 
posed of nutritive elements. 










OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


469 


Serving Fruit. —There are many different ways of serv¬ 
ing fruit, from those varieties that are never eaten except when 
raw, such as muskmelon, water-melon, etc., to cranberries and 
the ordinary varieties of the quince, which are never eaten raw. 
Methods of preparation are quite varied, including drying, or 
evaporating, and baking, boiling and stewing, while quantities 
of fruit are used in puddings, pies and other dishes and for 
preparations of jams, jellies and preserves. Fruit-juices form 
the most healthful beverages, and fruit ices make a most appe¬ 
tizing and healthful dish, if the ice is held in the mouth long 
enough to be perfectly “tasted,” and warmed so as to prevent 
chilling the stomach. Some fruits, notably the ripe olive, are 
prepared for the table by pickling in brine. 

The temperature at which fruits are eaten is largely a mat¬ 
ter of fashion or individual taste. In summer time it is well 
always to keep them in a cool cellar or in an ice-chest, provided 
that in the latter they are not allowed to become too cold. Not 
only does over-chilling lessen the delicate flavor and accentuate 
the acid taste in fruits, but if they are not thoroughly masti¬ 
cated fruits so treated chill the stomach, and thus arrest the 
process of digestion. 

The best time to gather fruits for the table, if for imme¬ 
diate use, is in the morning. If they are to be kept over night, 
or longer, they should not be gathered until the close of 
the day. 

Dried Fruits. —While fresh fruits and vegetables possess 
more advantageous qualities as human food than their chemical 
analyses alone seem to furnish, it is not always that one can 
secure these even at a time when they are most needed. The 
next best substitute is to have them dried. Prunes, raisins, 
peaches, apricots, pears, apples and many other forms of dried 
fruit are regular articles of commerce that can now be pur¬ 
chased in any city or village in the country. These can be 
washed and soaked in clean water and then served without 
cooking; while they are not quite so appetizing as when eaten 
fresh, they more nearly approximate the fresh fruit than when 
prepared in any other way. Few people use dried fruit in this 




470 MACF AD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


simple fashion. They invariably cook it and think it cannot 
be served in any other way. This is a mistake, as soaked dried 
fruits are both palatable and wholesome. 

Care must he exercised in purchasing dried fruits, as some 
mercenary packers put up kinds that are unfit for human food. 
They are full of refuse and waste, and are often vile with grubs 
and worms. Then, too, much dried fruit—such as peaches, 
sliced apples, etc.—has been subjected to a process of sulphur¬ 
izing to keep it from turning dark, and until we learn to buy 
food for its nutritive values rather than its appearance, the 
packers will continue this deteriorating process. Prunes, too, 
are often dipped in a solution of lye, salt and sugar to make 
them “glisten,” and until this is washed off they are not fit for 
human consumption. 

Of the highest food value are the dried sweet fruits, such 
as dates, figs and raisins. The dietary of every person seeking 
health and vigor, or desirous of maintaining it, should include a 
large proportion of these excellent foods. 

Dates. —Dates can rightly be termed condensed energy. 
They contain a large amount of fattening and energy pro¬ 
ducing elements. Some people deem them too rich for their 
stomachs, but this is owing to the fact that they are not 
properly masticated. A date should be masticated to a liquid 
before swallowing, if the digestion is to be carried on satis¬ 
factorily. Dates are especially valuable in combination with 
an uncooked diet. They are not only highly nutritious and 
very palatable but they can be mixed with various articles of 
food as sweetening, instead of sugar. The ordinary sugar pur¬ 
chased in the market is refined to such an extent that nearly all 
the nourishing elements have been destroyed, or brought into 
such a condition that the digestive organs find it difficult to 
assimilate them. 

There are various kinds of dates, but the most palatable 
and the most easily digested are those termed Persian dates. 
These dates are cheaper than any other kind, and when they are 
clean and fresh they are by far the best. When in good con¬ 
dition they contain but little fiber. Fard dates are smaller, 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


471 


contain more fiber, are harder and darker and more difficult to 
masticate. They are not so easy to digest, and are not so satis¬ 
factory a food as the Persian dates. One who is fond of sweets 
should avoid sugar and substitute dates. 

Dates can be used to sweeten puddings, and cakes, etc., and, 
if you have no device for grinding the date meat to a pulp, they 
can be soaked in water and the water added to whatever you 
desire to sweeten. They can be used to sweeten coffee or tea 
or any one of the food coffees. 

Date coffee can be made by adding one quart of water to 
about one-half pound of dates. Allow the dates to soak for a 
few minutes. Then with a potato masher, or something of the 
kind, break up the dates until they are reduced to seeds and 
fiber. Strain the liquid, heat to near boiling point. Then add 
cream or milk in accordance with taste. This makes a splendid 
drink with about half milk. To those who lack energy this will 
often help to bring about surprising results. 

Figs and Raisins. —Figs and raisins are equally valuable 
as palatable and healthful sweeteners and, being easily 
digested, as nutritious foods. Properly masticated they are 
very valuable foods and should be better known, more widely 
appreciated and far more largely used. 

Cereals. —There is no part of the world, except the Arctic 
regions, where cereals are not extensively cultivated. From the 
oats and rye of the North to the rice of the hot countries, grains 
of some kind are staple foods. This universal distribution 
would seem to imply that the cereal is a natural food well 
adapted for man under all conditions, circumstances and 
climes. Scientific investigation justifies this assumption. 

Cereals are cheaply and easily grown; they are readily pre¬ 
pared for the table; they are palatable and digestible. Owing 
to their dryness, they are compact and easily preserved without 
deterioration. They contain good proportions of the necessary 
food ingredients with a very small proportion of refuse. In 
their natural state, they are usually not considered pleasant to 
the taste and are thought to be difficult to digest, although 
there was never a greater fallacy than this, as will be shown. 




472 MACFAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Breakfast Foods. —Until a comparatively recent time, oat¬ 
meal, corn meal, or ordinary flour were stirred into hot water 
and made into porridge or mush. The Scotch use the double 
boiler and keep the porridge cooking continuously. Then came 
the grains which were steamed or otherwise partially cooked 
before being ground or rolled. The third form includes those 
preparations called “breakfast foods” which have been more 
thoroughly cooked and sometimes acted upon by malt, which 
induces a greater or less chemical change in the starch present. 

It is not necessary to enter into any explanation of the 
grains used for porridge and mush. Barley is, perhaps, one 
of the least used except in soup. Corn has always been largely 
used, especially in the South. Oats are a distinctly northern 
cereal and keep better than other food of this kind. Wheat has 
always been largely used in England, both cracked and ground. 

The growth of the modern breakfast food is one of the most 
remarkable of the many phenomena connected with the history 
of food. During the youth of many people who by no means 

the cereal of the morning meal 
was mush or porridge, made of 
either coarsely ground wheat, or 
oats, or of corn meal. The wheat 
and oats took a long time to cook. 

In the course of time, these 
grains were replaced by the so- 
called rolled oats and wheat pre¬ 
pared by being swelled with 
steam and then crushed by hot 
rollers. The two latest develop¬ 
ments have been in the prepara¬ 
tion of the so-called malted 
breakfast foods and in the 
“ready to eat” corn flakes, rice 
flakes, puffed rice, etc. 

The methods of preparing 
this latter class of foods are 
many and varied, and the exact 


regard themselves as “old” 



Vertical cross section of a grain 
of wheat. The outer coats a, b and 
e, together with the germ (c) and 
other nutritious parts, are de¬ 
stroyed In ordinary process-milling 
In order to produce white flour. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


473 


details in some instances are the secrets of the manufacturers; 
but one can generally give a fairly correct idea of the processes 
followed. Some are made of grains dried and crushed after 
being cooked in water; others are made of the mixture of dif¬ 
ferent grains; while still others have salt, malt and sugar, 
molasses or other sweetening material added to them. Wheat 
flakes, corn flakes and rice flakes are cooked by steam and while 
still wet are run between hot rollers and pressed into thin 
flakes. One well-known food is made into a dough, baked, 
dried, brushed and recooked. The shredded preparations are 
made with special machinery, which cooks and at the same 
time thoroughly grinds or crushes the grain, and then deposits 
it in shreds. The “malted” or “predigested” preparations 
usually have malt or some other such substance added during 
the processes of manufacture. The diastase of malt has the 
power, under certain conditions, to change the starch, which 
is insoluble in water, into various soluble forms, which it is 
claimed are more easily acted upon by the digestive juices than 
the original starch. 

Although the wholesomeness of these modern preparations 
is sometimes interfered with by too much cooking, predigest¬ 
ing, etc., they certainly possess one great advantage over the 
old style. This is absolute cleanliness. In the modern food 
factories the most scrupulous care to exclude dust and dirt is 
exercised both in manufacture and packing. In these proc¬ 
esses human hands scarcely touch the product in any way 
whatever and they reach the consumer in the most hygienic and 
sanitary condition. 

In the milling of many of the grains the bran is often elim¬ 
inated. This is a mistake, as bran is effective as a “scouring” 
element in digestion. Accordingly it is well for the ordinary 
vigorous person, especially if he is inclined toward constipation, 
to mix bran with his breakfast cereal, after soaking it awhile in 
cream to render it palatable. 

The following table gives the comparative composition 
of the various cereals: 




474 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Average composition of cereal grains. 






Total carbohy¬ 
drates. 

Mineral 

Fuel 

KIND OF CEREAL. 

Water. 

Protein 

Fat. 

Starch, 

sugar, 

etc. 

Crude 

fiber. 

mat¬ 

ters. 

per 

pound. 


Perct. 

Perct. 

Perct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Calor¬ 

ies. 

Indian corn. 

10.8 

10.0 

4.3 

71.7 

1.7 

1.5 

1,800 

Barley. 

10.9 

11.0 

2.3 

69.5 

3.8 

2.5 

1,735 

Buckwheat . 

12.6 

10.0 

2.2 

64.5 

8.7 

2.0 

1,600 

Kaffir corn. 

12.5 

10.9 

2.9 

70.5 

1.9 

1.3 

1,630 

Oats. 

11.0 

11.8 

5.0 

59.7 

9.5 

3.0 

1,720 

Rice. 

12.0 

8.0 

2.0 

76.0 

1.0 

1.0 

1,720 

Rye. 

10.5 

12.2 

1.5 

71.8 

2.1 

1.9 

1,740 

Wheat. 

10.6 

12.2 

1.7 

71.3 

2.4 

1.8 

1,750 


Corn. —From this table it will be seen that corn holds a 
high place as a nutrient. Corn, or maize, as it is properly 
called, is a characteristic American product. About one-third 
of all the land under cultivation in the United States is devoted 
to corn. The annual crop is valued at about three billion 
bushels, which is thrice that of the wheat crop, which is next to 
it in value. 

While meal, hominy and similar products are the principal 
corn foods, there are a number of others of much importance. 
“Corn on the cob” of certain sweet varieties is a favorite vegeta¬ 
ble dish during the season. A large amount of popcorn is 
consumed, and there are very few substitutes for coffee in which 

roasted and ground corn 
does not form a part. 

Corn meal is cooked in 
a great variety of ways, 
but most of the dishes fall 
under two general heads, 
namely, bread prepared 
by baking, and porridge 
or puddings made by boil¬ 
ing. In the case of the 
ready-to-eat corn break¬ 
fast foods the cooking 
and general preparation 



Drawing showing the relative digestibility of 
uncooked grains—Grains were cut on dotted line; 
unshaded portion was digested. 1—Barley: 2 
—Rye; 3—Wheat; 4—Oats; 5-6— Corn. Points 
marked a in 5 and 6 show starchy portion, points 
marked b show germ. 










































——*- 


OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 475 


have been done at the factory. This usually consists in rolling 
or flaking and sometimes parching and flavoring the thoroughly 
steamed or boiled and softened grain. 


Composition of corn preparations, compared with wheat bread. 


KIND OF MATERIAL. 


Hominy, boiled. 

Hoecake. 

Johnnycake. 

Boston brown bread. 

Corn breakfast foods, fl 
(partially cooked at factory) 
Corn breakfast foods, flaked 


Indian pudding.. 

Cornstarch blanc-mange (made 


Parched corn. 

Popped corn. 

Hulled corn. 

Granulated corn meal. 
Wheat bread. 





Carbohydrates. 


Fuel 

Water. 

Protein. 

Fat. 

Starch, 

Crude 

Mineral 

mat¬ 

value 

per 




sugar, 

etc. 

fiber. 

ters. 

pound. 

Per ct. 

Per ct. 

Per ct . 

Per ct . 

Per ct . 

Per ct . 

Calor¬ 

ies . 

79.3 

2.2 

0.2 

17.8 

0.5 

380 

52.8 

4.0 

.6 

40.0 

0.2 

2.4 

885 

29.4 

7.8 

2.2 

57.5 

.2 

2.9 

1,385 

43.9 

6.3 

2.1 

45.7 

.1 

1.9 

1,110 

10.3 

9.6 

1.1 

77.9 

.4 

.7 

1,680 

7.3 

10.1 

1.8 

77.2 

1.2 

2.4 

1,735 

. 60.7 

5.5 

4.8 

27.5 

1.5 

815 

. 87.3 

5.2 

2.9 

11.5 

.1 

8.4 

9.5 

7: 


.2 

230 

1,915 

2.3 

2.6 

4.3 

10.7 

5-0 

77.3 | 1.4 

1.3 

1,880 

. 74.1 

2.3 

.9 

22.2 

.5 

490 

. 12.5 

9.2 

1.9 

T4.4 

, l.o 

1.0 

1,655 

, 35.3 

9.2 

1.3 

52.6 

1 5 

1.1 

1,205 


In digestibility corn and corn products compare favorably 
with other grain foods, and in cheapness of cost far exceed 
them. 

Rice. —As an article of diet, rice is one of the most 
important foods in the world. It is habitually used by over 
120,000,000 people, and is the chief article of diet of about 
one-third of the human race. Otto Carque says: 

“So far as it is known rice was the first cereal used by man. Probably 
the Aryans carried it with them in their migratory marches from the cradle 
of the human race in the earliest dawn of history. We know that it was in¬ 
troduced into China about five thousand years ago; that it was grown in the 
valley of the Euphrates over two thousand years ago; that the Arabs took it 
to Spain, and sustained by its marvelous powers of nourishment, planted 
their victorious banners in many lands. It was introduced into Italy in 
1468. Sir William Berkeley first cultivated it in Virginia in 1647. Today 
it is the staple article of food of the millions of India, Siam, China, and 
Africa. In the Mediterranean countries, and in the tropical and subtropical 
regions of North and South America, it is cultivated as a principal means 

Vol. 1—30 r 






































476 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


of subsistence. It is the chief diet of the wonderful Japanese soldiery 
whose strength and prowess compel our admiration and wonder. 

“The main reason for the superiority of rice over all other forms of 
foods is its ready digestibility, plain boiled rice being assimilated in one 
hour, while the other cereals, legumes, and most vegetables require from 
three and one-half to five hours. Rice thus enables a man to economize 
fully seventy-five per cent of the time and energy expended in the diges¬ 
tion of ordinary food, thus adding it to the reserve force of the system. A 
rice diet is generally prescribed for any inflammation of the mucous mem¬ 
brane, whether of the lungs, stomach or bowels. It is but self-evident that 
these statements particularly refer to unpolished rice as it is used by the 
Oriental nations. Unfortunately, Americans and Europeans are still igno¬ 
rant of the great difference between polished and unpolished rice. 

“Estimated according to standard food values, the parts removed by 
the polishing process are nearly twice as valuable for food as polished rice. 
This polish contains the germ and the cuticle and, as in all other grains 
and fruit, it is the sweetest part. In a hundred pounds of rice ‘polish’ 
there are, besides water and starch: 11 pounds of protein, 7.2 pounds of 
fat, and 5.2 pounds of mineral elements. In a hundred pounds of polished 
rice there are only 7.4 pounds of protein, 0.3 pound of fat, and 0.4 pound 
of mineral elements. 

“The unpolished rice is, on an average, ten times as rich in organic salts 
as the polished rice of commerce. As the flavor is in the fats and organic 
salts, it is easy to understand the lack of it in commercial rice and why 
travelers universally speak of the excellent quality of the rice they eat in 
Oriental countries. 

“Of the mineral elements lost in the polishing process silicon is espe¬ 
cially valuable. * Silicon in the form of silicic acid constitutes a large part 
of the solid surface of our planet. It is indispensable for the growths of 
plants and it is likewise important in the animal body. It makes the muscles 
firm, for it protects them against chemical decomposition, and has, conse¬ 
quently, an antiseptic action; it warms the blood by isolating and keeping 
together the electricity by its salty constituents. Sulphur and silica are 
found in the hair, making the latter a non-conductor of heat and electricity. 
Iron, which is also removed to a great extent with the polish, is necessary 
for the formation of the red blood corpuscles, magnetism, and heat. 
Sodium is found in unpolished rice in a higher percentage than in any 
other cereal; this element combines with the carbonic acid which is con¬ 
stantly formed by the oxidizing processes in the body, and enables this 
gas to be properly discharged through the lungs. Sodium protects the 
blood from acidity which is the cause of many diseases. Calcium, mag¬ 
nesium, and phosphorus are also predominant and these elements are im¬ 
portant for building up our bones and teeth. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


477 


“From an economic point of view the production of rice should be 
favored. When compared with the annual return from an acre of wheat, 
corn or oats, rice appears to excellent advantage, and its cultivation too is 
not attended with danger of loss from drought that attends the growing of 
other cereals, because the rice grower is not dependent on the elements for 
the necessary water supply, having an abundance of water at hand dur¬ 
ing the entire season for use as needed. Wheat exhausts the soil rapidly; 
ten to fifteen years continuous cropping, even in the fertile prairies of 
the Northwest of America, reduces the annual yield to scarcely paying 
quantities. On the rice lands of Louisiana and Texas, one man with a 
four-mule team can plant and harvest one hundred acres of rice and, if 
well tended, his crop will net him from one hundred and sixty thousand 
pounds to two hundred thousand pounds of hulled rice, enough to sustain 
five hundred people for one year. 

“Japan, with a population of forty-five million people, produces and 
consumes approximately twenty-two billion pounds of rice annually. 
China consumes about one hundred billion pounds. India demands as 
much as China, and including Burma and Siam, exports about seven billion 
pounds to Europe. The United States is using for food about five hun¬ 
dred million pounds of rice annually, the per capita consumption being 
about six pounds, while in Japan it is over four hundred pounds or over 
one pound a day per head of the population.” 

Where rice is not the chief dish of an Oriental meal, it is 
always its accompaniment. It also enters largely into the 
composition of soups, cakes and all sorts of fancy dishes. More 
than bread it deserves the title of the “staff of life” from the 
far greater number of people for whom it forms the chief 
article of diet. 

Bread. —The baking of bread has been practiced from pre¬ 
historic times. Not only have archaeologists discovered stones 
for grinding meal and baking bread in the excavations of the 
lake dwellings of Switzerland, but the bread itself, baked in 
that almost inconceivable antiquity, has been recovered in 
liberal quantities, preserved by the accident of having been 
charred or carbonized, probably in the fires which sometimes 
destroyed the pile-dwellings of these primitive folk. The forms 
are small round biscuits, about an inch to an inch and a half 
in diameter. The material used was grains of barley more or 
less crushed. The bottoms of these little cakes indicate that 
they were baked by placing lumps of dough upon hot stones, 
then covering them over with glowing ashes. 




478 MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


This primitive bread has not been improved upon since. It 
could not be improved upon, because it was the simple baking 
of Nature’s own product, uncontaminated by adulterants and 
robbed of none of the valuable constituents of the grain. And 
the more substantial breads of the present time do not differ 
essentially from those primitive little loaves, except in the use 
of a special oven, instead of heated stones. The coarse, unleav¬ 
ened breads of some nations of the world to-day are made either 
of crushed grains, or of grains ground only into a simple meal, 
mixed with nothing but water, and with not an atom of the 
valuable food material removed. 

For instance, some of the Norsemen of the present time 
use a hard-tack bread made of unground rye. The grains are 
first soaked, then merely mashed by pounding, after which they 
are baked in disks of about a foot in diameter and an eighth 
of an inch in thickness—or thinness rather. In the center of 
each piece is a hole, so that the bread may be stored away on 
thin poles after baking, or hung up on strings below deck in 
the fishing smacks. This hard tack is used chiefly by the fisher 
folk. 

In the remote country districts of Scandinavia, also, the 
poor people bake “flad-brod” only twice a year, storing it away 
for future use. Their diet is chiefly bread and porridge, with a 
little herring or other dried fish. The bread is made either 
from rye or from a mixture of barley, rye and pea-meal, baked 
in thin layers, and is as hard as flint. 

The extreme poverty of the peasantry of Russia in some 
sections is such that they cannot even enjoy the pleasures of 
a whole-meal rye bread, but are compelled during parts of 
the year to mix their meal with ground birch bark, husks or 
pounded straw in order to make it go farther, or to last until 
the next harvest. Pitiful as this is, however, it may really not 
be very much worse than a diet of simply white bread and tea. 

Barley will grow farther north than any other cereal, and 
is consequently much used by the Norwegians for bread. But 
for the most part, rye is used in Austria, Russia, Lapland 
Northern Scandinavia and parts of Siberia, as wheat is used 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


479 


in the United States, and chiefly in the form of black bread. 
It may be said just here that the so-called black bread is not 
literally black, but varies from a dark golden brown to a very 
dark golden brown, the term “black” being used to distinguish 
it from white bread. 

It is usually considered that the whole grain of wheat is a 
more perfect human food than that of rye, approximating more 
nearly the exact chemical constituents of the human body; but 
this black rye bread disputes the claim, for its eaters possess 
remarkable vigor, and live to an advanced age. It is said that 
reindeer sledge parties subsist upon it, in combination with 
unsweetened brick tea, for weeks together, with only the occa¬ 
sional addition of a bit of fish. Among the peasantry in many 
sections the almost exclusive diet of black bread is modified by 
the addition of onions or garlic. 

There is such a large Russian-Jewish population in New 
York City that there are many bakeries which supply the same 
bread which is used so largely in Russia. This black “pumper¬ 
nickel,” as it is called, is baked in enormous round loaves about 
eighteen inches in diameter and weighing from sixteen to 
twenty pounds each. These loaves are cut up and sold by the 
quarter loaf, or smaller 
“chunk,” at a relatively 
low price. They are 
heavy and solid, and have 
the purest rye flavor, 
even though somewhat 
sour, the sour taste being 
developed by the rapid 
fermentation of the sugar 
contained in the rye. 

From each baking a small 
piece of dough containing 
live yeast plants is re¬ 
tained to mix with the 
next batch, the whole-rye 
flour being mixed with 



Huge loaves of black “pumpernickel,” a 
plain, rather unattractive, but very nutritious 
bread made of rye flour. 




480 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


nothing else, except water, and allowed to stand for six 
hours before baking. This is a bread that not only may be 
but must be masticated; otherwise one could not eat it at 
all. Another rye bread of a rather lighter character, somewhat 
soured also, but more leavened, is likewise much used in certain 
sections of New York City; it is sold chiefly in round loaves of 
eight to ten inches in diameter, at eight and ten cents a loaf. 
This also is superior to the so-called sweet-rye commonly sold 
in bakeries, the word sweet being applied not because it is 
sweetened, which it is not, but to distinguish it from the sour 
rye bread. There is a Bohemian rye bread very similar to the 
rye bread described, though a little heavier, perhaps less 
leavened, and yet not solid like the pumpernickel. 

Sweet Pumpernickel.— There is also to be had in the 
various delicatessen shops of New York a sweet pumpernickel, 
so called only because it is not soured. To the American taste, 
not accustomed to the acid character of the Russian black 
bread, this is much more satisfactory. It is, indeed, perhaps as 
near to ideal bread as anything could be, outside of a whole¬ 
wheat loaf made in a similar manner. 

In addition to the black bread of Siberia a small ringed 
hard-tack is used considerably. It does not even contain any 
salt, and, after being first steamed, is baked to render it thor¬ 
oughly dry. It is sometimes soaked in hot tallow to increase 
its heat-imparting properties, and is then especially valuable 
as a cold weather food. It can also be made to give both heat 
and light directly, as a candle does, by inserting waxed strings 
and touching a match to them. 

The Italian coast-working population uses a disk like hard¬ 
tack, with a hole in the center for storing, known as macaroni 
pane duro, which is usually soaked in their cheap wines before 
it is eaten. It is of a light color, like that of the regular strip 
of perforated macaroni, and may be used similarly in soups, 
though in this way is not as satisfactory. 

The Italian breads for the most part are fairly substantial, 
though not so much so as the darker and more solid breads of 
Germany, Austria and the more northern countries. Some of 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


481 


their loaves are narrow and very long, while others take the 
form of large rings, the “family” loaves being large enough to 
put one’s head through with ease. For feasts and special occa¬ 
sions they are sometimes made of enormous size, frequently two 
or three feet in diameter. 

Oat cakes, which are still used somewhat in the rural dis¬ 
tricts of Scotland, are made by mixing up oatmeal, warm water 
and salt into a stiff paste, kneaded into a thin cake, first fired 
on a hot plate or griddle, and finished in front of an open fire. 
In the towns, and even a part of the country, this wholesome 
form of bread and the old-fashioned porridge have now been 
largely displaced by the increased use of white bread and tea, 
and there can be no doubt that the present decreased vitality 
and lower standard of health in the Scotch people can be attrib¬ 
uted largely to this cause. Cereal vendors in the United States 
are now endeavoring to introduce the idea of oatmeal bread as a 
novel and wholesome food, to further their business interests, 
but the recipes usually call for as much white flour—some¬ 
times twice as much—as of oatmeal, in order to satisfy the 
craze for light and puffy bread. However, even this must 
be better than the unmixed white bread. 

The corn-breads and “johnny-cakes” with which we are 
all familiar are invariably made with a certain proportion of 
white wheat flour, and are not bad, even at that, but it is neces¬ 
sary to go to Mexico for a real corn-bread. The much appre¬ 
ciated tortillas of Spanish-American countries are flat cakes 
made simply of roughly ground maize, salt and water. In 
connection with milk or coffee they form practically the entire 
breakfast of the people of Mexico, regardless of race or 
physique, and are also much used by the native Indians. 

In parts of Asia and Africa the natives make bread of 
several varieties of millet, a grain which in our own and many 
other countries is used as food only for animals. East India 
consumes more millet than all other grains put together. Great 
numbers of the more poverty-stricken classes of northern 
China, who cannot afford rice, grind up millet for bread and 
for porridge, and during a Russian famine some years ago 




482 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


millet bread was for a long time the only food which remained 
between the peasantry and starvation. 

Bread may be made from buckwheat, though this is com¬ 
monly used only for griddle cakes. It is not a grain, but a 
herbaceous plant botanically related to the rhubarb and sorrel. 
The name was originally beech-wheat, owing to the three-sided, 
angular shape of the seed. 

Among the Japanese and Chinese rice is frequently ground 
into a flour from which both bread and cakes may be made. A 
bread can also be made from potato flour, which is made by 
slicing, drying and grinding potatoes to a powder. 

Boston Brown Bread. —One of the best and most whole¬ 
some of American oven products is the “Boston brown bread,” 
made from rye, graham flour and corn meal, with black 
molasses, and usually served very hot. Graham breads and so- 
called whole-wheat breads are commonly sold at up-to-date 
bakeries, though in some cases they are not much better than 
the white loaves retailed at the same places. Some are dark¬ 
ened by molasses. 

So much attention is directed to the task of satisfying the 
popular taste for light, spongy bread, that manufacturers of 
whole-wheat flours endeavor to give their customers a product 
of the same consistency as the white flour, and so it is hard to 
get a genuine whole-wheat flour. The best plan is to buy a 
small wheat mill that will enable one to grind his own meal 
and have it fresh every few days. 

The flour thus made contains the bran and all the rougher 
elements of the grain, which are of decided advantage in sup¬ 
plying nutriment for the teeth and bones, and is also healthful 
because it demands proper mastication. 

The human alimentary canal requires a certain amount of 
waste products to assist in the proper digestion of the food. 
Whenever a highly concentrated food is used, especially if it 
is hurriedly masticated, it is a source of danger. The peristal¬ 
tic activity of the bowels requires a certain amount of coarse 
or fibrous material in order to secure proper digestion and as¬ 
similation. This is furnished very thoroughly by the bran or 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


483 


woody fiber, which is found in the covering of wheat and all 
other grains. When this has been removed, and the usual 
hurried process of mastication is followed, there is defective 
digestion and assimilation, and slowly but surely functional 
defects develop which in practically every case finally result in 
some chronic disease more or less serious in nature. 

Hot bread made from whole meal of wheat or from any 
of the other grains is wholesome in every case if thoroughly 
masticated. Graham gems, for instance, make a splendid 
article of food, wholesome and nourishing, and one could make 
an entire meal on them with the greatest physical advantage. 
Bread made from whole meal is usually compact and rich in 
nourishment. It is not light and frothy, as you generally find 
white bread. Therefore, if you do not have a distinct appetite, 
you do not enjoy eating bread made from whole grains. If, 
however, you have a healthy and normal appetite, if you really 
need nourishment, then you will find that there is a sweet, nut¬ 
like flavor to bread made from whole-wheat that you can not 
possibly find in white bread. Wheat bread becomes really and 
truly a staff of life only when it is made from the whole grain. 

Beyond a doubt, many will inquire what one should do for 
pastry, pies, puddings, etc., if not able to use bolted white flour. 
You will find that the whole meal of the wheat can be substi¬ 
tuted for white flour in your recipes in practically every case, 
and that the results will please you. Delicious pies can be made 
from the whole meal of the wheat which have a tastiness about 
them that far surpasses those made from white flour. For the 
hot rolls and hot biscuits that are so delectable to the ordinary 
appetite when permeated with quantities of melted butter, the 
whole-wheat meal can be substituted, and although the product 
resulting therefrom may not be so light, it will be even more 
delicious, if you have a genuine appetite. 

There is one kind of bread furnished ready-made by Mother 
Nature, or at least all ready except the baking, namely the 
“bread-fruit,” originally native of the South Sea Islands, but 
now transplanted to countries throughout the tropical regions 
of both hemispheres. It grows on a tree of moderate height, 




484 MACE AD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


and is similar in shape to a football, and almost as large." The 
fruit is gathered for use just before ripening, when it is packed 
with starchy matter. It may be prepared for use in many ways, 
and in its fresh condition is frequently baked entire, in hot 
embers, whereupon the interior may be scooped out; this has 
a soft smooth consistency and a flavor not unlike the taste of 
potatoes boiled in milk. It combines well with fruits and other 
ingredients for puddings. In the tropical isles of the Pacific 
bread-fruit takes the place that cereals hold in temperate lati¬ 
tudes. It is commonly preserved for use by cutting it into 
thin slices, which are dried in the sun. These dried slices may 
then be made into flour at any time, from which bread and 
biscuits may be prepared much the same as from any other 
flour, or the slices themselves may be baked and eaten without 
grinding. Its flavor is so pleasing and delicate that one never 
tires of it. 

Whitening of Flour.— The word “bread,” however, to 
most Americans still connotes the baked product of white 
wheat flour. Unfortunately stress is laid upon the qualfiy of 
whiteness as a prime essential in the flour. To this predilec¬ 
tion millers have pandered, inventing new processes for elim¬ 
inating in milling the parts of the grain which would give the 
flour a dark color, even though these contain the most nourish¬ 
ing elements of wheat. Combined with this they have more and 
more employed injurious and even poisonous chemicals for 
bleaching the flour—alum, nitric acid, etc. 

To understand fully what the modern miller does to the 
grain as it comes from Nature’s stores, let us examine and 
analyze the wheat as we find it and then see what the flour is 
that is sold in its place. We find in the wheat cereal the fol¬ 
lowing primary elements, viz., bran, phosphates, gluten and 
starch. Under a strong magnifying glass we first come in 
contact with a very slight woody-fibrous covering outside the 
bran proper. There is no food value in this, nor in the fuzz 
at the blossom end of the berry, which also contains a minute 
amount of dust. These may properly be termed waste, and 
as they are easily removed, machinery has been designed that 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


485 


thoroughly removes and cleanses the wheat of this and other 
foreign substances which get mixed in with the wheat, by 
screening, scouring and winnowing. This covering removed, 
we come to the bran itself. 

Now, wheat bran is not only easily digested by any normal 
stomach, but has valuable food qualities, being rich in proteids, 
certain minerals, etc. This fact is recognized by the very 
millers who eliminate it from flour, in advocating this bran 
and middlings, offals as they are commonly termed (mid¬ 
dlings being mainly fine particles of bran and the germ of the 
wheat), as the best of food for stock. Wheat bran contains 
12.5 per cent protein, middlings 12.8 per cent, whereas corn 
contains only 7.9 per cent. Bran and middlings therefore 
form, par excellence, the feed for the dairy, furnishing the 
qualities that are so much needed in the formation of milk. 

Now, is it not a little strange that these offals should be of 
such inestimable value to stock, have such beneficial food 
values, and yet be so unfit for man? If these prime elements, 
protein, phosphates and minerals, are of such value to cattle 
and horses, why are they not to men also? Besides, an eminent 
authority has demonstrated that, wheat bran contributes some¬ 
thing to the composition of the enamel of the teeth, and if we 
always lived on entire wheat flour we would have few decayed 
teeth. 

Next we notice the germ of the wheat, which is found at 
the stalk end of the berry, uniting the end of the berry to the 
ear. Wheat, like all other cereals, contains a germ, that living 
and life-giving element, which germinates and reproduces itself. 
Chemistry tells us it is the phosphates of the grains which feed 
the brain and nerve centers of our being. If our brain and 
nerves are not properly nourished, we cannot have physical 
vigor and health, and we become mere weaklings susceptible to 
all the ailments that strew our pathway. 

Third, the gluten. This is a gluey or gelatinous substance 
which contributes to the muscle, sinew and bone, and consti¬ 
tutes the base of animal tissue. It is scattered all through the 
internal part in minute globules, but the greater part lies next 




486 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the bran and adheres tenaciously to it. An illustration on a 
preceding page shows a cross section of a grain of wheat greatly 
magnified. 

Fourth, the starch. This occupies the internal part of the 
grain. It preponderates in quantity, and is the white portion 
of the wheat, all the other elements having color. This starch 
is what makes fat and contributes to the warmth of the body. 
Thus we see the importance of retaining in our bread all these 
different elements, and the folly of discarding any of them. 

But, not satisfied with the evil they have done in this elimi¬ 
nation, the millers add to the injury. Infinitesimal particles of 
bran find their way through the meshes of the silk through 
which the flour is passed in the process that is called bolting the 
flour, and the millers, to get rid of these, resort to bleaching, 
claiming that this does not affect the flour. Their statements, 
however, are not true, because in order to change the color of 
any physical substance there must be a change in the substance 
itself. Without some chemical change, you cannot make black 
white. If, then, there are changes, these changes must be in 
the cell structure of the flour. If so, what are they and what 
will be the ultimate effect of these changes ? Recently Prof. 
Fleurant, one of the most eminent of French chemists, read 
before the French Millers’ National Convention a paper giving 
an analysis of three different samples of flour that had been 
subjected to the bleaching process by acids combined with the 
use of electricity. These samples had been carefully stored 
from one to four months, and in each case the result was found 
to be mainly the same. He said: 

“The gluten was reduced in quantity, the fatty matter was 
diminished, and the acidity increased. In each case, the result 
was the same. The acidity had been doubled, and the effect 
upon the system cannot be but baneful. This instantaneous 
bleaching by electricity is simply the introduction of burned 
air, the electric flame being a convenient method of destroying 
the oxygen or carbonic acid gas, thus destroying the natural oil 
so essential in bread.” 

This whole system of bleaching or otherwise doctoring up 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


487 


flour in order to produce extreme whiteness is mainly the cause 
of the alarming increase in constipation and the whole train 
of ailments that follow in its wake. It is a well-known fact— 
attested by eminent physicians—4hat constipation, stomach and 
bowel troubles and nervous prostration have greatly increased 
since the introduction of this modern extra-fine white flour. 

White flour was bad enough to cause our opposition, but 
when bleaching was added the detriment to the health of the 
people was so materially increased that we redoubled our fight 
against it. Then the Government passed its pure food bill, and 
one of the first things the experts of the Department did was to 
investigate the methods of making bleached flour. This it did 
with much thoroughness, its researches extending over a period 
of many months. The chief result of the reports of the investi¬ 
gators was an announcement by the Secretary of Agriculture 
to the effect that a large proportion of white flour was arti¬ 
ficially bleached, peroxide of hydrogen being the agent usually 
employed, and that therefore it was an adulterated product 
under the law, and its makers were subject to incidental legal 
pains and penalties. In consequence of which the Secretary 
issued orders that no such flour was to be exposed for sale in 
the District of Columbia or the Territories, or to he transported 
by interstate commerce. 

Toast.— Bread, especially white wheat bread as found in 
our bakeries, is usually not thoroughly baked. When, there¬ 
fore, one is compelled to eat it, it is well to rebake or toast it. 

There are comparatively few people among the civilized 
races who are not more or less fond of toasted bread as an arti¬ 
cle of diet. It is generally considered more digestible and by 
many more palatable than untoasted bread. With the Ger¬ 
mans and others it generally assumes the form of zwiebach, 
which simply means “twice baked.” 

There are many methods of preparing toast, but they 
should all aim at about the same result. Too hasty toasting 
browns the surface too quickly, while it leaves the interior 
almost unaffected by the heat. Ordinary baker’s bread, if 
toasted when new, as is the fashion in many country hotels, 




488 MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


namely, by placing it on the top of a fairly heated stove, makes 
a piece of soggy, steamy, leathery, unpalatable pretense of 
toast with a mere brown coating which is a delusion and a 
snare. Toast should never be made from bread less than 
twelve hours old and should first be dried in an oven and then 
toasted over a bed of red-hot coals, being held in a wire-toaster, 
or on an old-fashioned toasting-fork. It is thus thoroughly 
dried through and the outside browned crisply without being 
burned. 

Legumes. —After cereals, the most valuable and widely 
used vegetable foods are the legumes. The seeds are eaten 
green, either alone or with the pod, as in the case of string or 
snap beans and edible podded peas. Others are not eaten 
until in the fully ripened state, as split peas, dried beans, lentils 
and peanuts. They are hardy and therefore are found in all 
climes and countries. They grow rapidly and are cultivated 
in far northern lands where the summer is short. They also 
stand high temperatures so that they are found both in tropical 
and subtropical regions. In middle and northern Europe the 
pea is the favorite, while in the Mediterranean countries the 
bean holds first place. In our own country, both the pea and 
bean are grown extensively and indeed so prolific are our 
crops that we have an excess which we sell to other nations. 
One has but to see the vast bean-fields of Ventura County, 
California, and other nearby regions to realize what a tre¬ 
mendous hold these foods have upon the nation. The lentil 
is less generally cultivated in the United States and has not 
yet come into popular favor. But it is one of the most useful 
of the legumes and for centuries has been known for its high 
value as a human food. 

Beans. —The bean was cultivated by the Egyptians, 
Greeks and Romans and it was known to the aborigines of 
the North American continent long centuries prior to the 
coming of Columbus. Almost everywhere where the human 
family exists beans may be found. The earliest cultivated 
bean is the broad one, known in England as the Windsor bean. 
It is not as well known in this country as it should be. In 




OF PHYSICAL CULTUPE 489 


England it is eaten 
fore the seed be< 
full grown, being 
well-flavored, 
tender, and yet rich 
easily digestible muscle- 
building and beat-form¬ 
ing properties. 

The Lima bean is the 
broad bean generally used 
both green and ripe, in the 
United States; it is deservedly 
popular, though in several 
parts of Europe it is not re¬ 
garded in its green state to be 
the equal of the nutritious 
green Windsor broad bean. 

String or snap beans are extensively used, and form a taste¬ 
ful and nourishing food which can be eaten with relish either 
hot or cold. These generally be¬ 
long to the kidney-bean family. 
They are supposed to be native 
of South America, having been in¬ 
troduced from there into Europe 
in the sixteenth century. The so- 
called wax-beans all belong to this 
species. There are certain of these 
beans that turn dark in cooking. 
Some people have a prejudice 
against these dark beans, but it 
is altogether unfounded as they 
are most palatable, well-flavored, 
easily digested and very nutritious. 

A species that is familiar in the 
L T nited States as an ornamental 
climbing vine, but which seems to 
be almost totally unknown for its 





The Snap Bean. 








490 MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


food qualities, is the scarlet runner. In England several 
varieties of these are very much preferred, both as string 
and shelled beans, to the varieties of kidney beans. When 
picked early enough they are tender and delicious, and it 
is time that the American people began to realize how much 
they are losing by not using this palatable, healthful and 
nutritious food. 

A variety that is very largely used here and is recognized 
for its palatability and healthfulness is the small, reddish 
colored bean of Mexico and our southwestern country. To 
the Mexican it is known as the frijole (pronounced free-ho-ly). 
It is a small, flat bean, generally 
of a reddish brown or light tan 
color. When Texas, New Mexico, 

Arizona and California were an¬ 
nexed by the United States, the 
frijole was found to be, with maize, 
the staple food of the Indians, 

Mexicans and Span¬ 
iards, and among 
these people it still 
holds its former posi¬ 
tion, at the same time 
having won consider¬ 
able favor in the eyes 
of the more recent 
American p op illa¬ 
tion. At the proper 
time it is used as a 
green or snap bean. 

And among the native population of 
these regions there is scarcely a day 
in the year when, in one form or an¬ 
other, it is not placed upon the table. 

The so-called cow-pea really be¬ 
longs to the bean family, although it 
is known in the Southern States as The cow-pea. 










OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 491 


the field-pea. There are many species of this legume which 
are grown in the South, both as a forage plant and for human 
food, but mainly as green manure for the soil. Considerable 
quantities are consumed during the season, being gathered 
when the pods begin to change color, and before they begin to 
turn dry. They require a longer season for growth than the 
kidney bean, and therefore are impracticable for the colder 
northern climes, but the dry bean might be introduced with 
advantage into the northern markets and would become a great 
acquisition to the northern dietary because of its distinct and 
agreeable flavor. 

The soy bean and several other uncommon varieties are 
used to a very great extent by the Chinese and Japanese, both 
in their own countries and in our Western States. They are 
not as well known as they should be, and if more extensively 
cultivated and placed upon the market they would undoubtedly 
soon become favorites. 

There is still one other bean that is familiar in the American 
market, the carob or locust bean, which, 
having formed a chief part of the food 
of John the Baptist, is often known as 
St. John’s bread. It is grown on the 
shores of the Mediterranean and the 
poor people eat it to a considerable 
extent, though its greatest use is as a 
food for cattle. When dry it contains 
about fifty per cent of sugar, and as the 
flavor is agreeable to many people, chil¬ 
dren eat it with relish. While differing 
from it in some regards, the bean of the 
honey locust of this country is some¬ 
what similar to the carob and is equally 
as nourishing and palatable. 

Peas. —The pea is a most popular 
food, being found on the table of rich 
and poor alike, not only during the time 
it is fresh, but, owing to the perfection 

Vol. 1—31 



Garden Pea. 






492 MA CFA DDE N J S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


of the processes of canning, when it is out of season as well. 
It is not known where the pea originally came from, but as 
late as the tune of Queen Elizabeth it was not grown in Eng¬ 
land. Fuller says that peas were brought from Holland and 
were accounted a “fit dainty for ladies, they came so far and 
cost so dear.” In Europe the dry or split pea is largely used, 
both as a vegetable and as a basis for soups, though in our 
own country its use out of season is largely confined to the 
canned varieties. 

The field-pea and the garden pea have a great number of 
varieties which we have insufficient space to describe here. 
Those known as the sugar peas are generally the favorites, but 
all varieties should be eaten as early as possible after picking. 

The longer they remain 
uncooked, the less sweet 
and finely flavored they 
become. 

Lentils. —The lentil 
is possibly the most an¬ 
cient of food plants. It 
was undoubtedly the red¬ 
dish Egyptian lentil that 
furnished the red pottage 
of Jacob for a mess of 
which Esau sold his birth¬ 
right. Owing to the fact 
that the lentil has a little 
stronger flavor than peas 
and beans, some people 
do not like it, but there 
are those who pronounce 
it the most palatable of 
legumes, as it certainly is 
the most nutritious. It is 
not yet cultivated to any 
large extent in the United 
States except in Arizona 







OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


493 


and New Mexico, where it was brought three hundred and fifty 
years ago by the Spaniards. It is a hardy plant, will grow 
in sandy soil, and is a prolific bearer. 






CHAPTER XX 


HOW AND WHEN TO EAT. 

T HERE is as much difference between normal and natural 
hunger-appetite and abnormal or unnatural appetite as 
there is between darkness and light. The one is the 
natural call of the body for food or drink and the other is an 
unnatural craving that takes possession of one and the satisfac¬ 
tion of which is fraught with danger. The healthy hunger- 
appetite can always be satisfied with pleasure and gratification 
and the results are invariably beneficial and healthful. The 
abnormal appetite is never satisfied until dulled or satiated and 
is never gratified with any other than injurious results. If 
man lived naturally and normally, his appetite could be relied 
upon to guide him both in the selection of his food and in the 
amount that he should take. 

Five Rules for Eating. —There are five important points 
in regard to eating that should never be overlooked. First, 
Never eat without a healthy, normal appetite-hunger . Get rid 
of the idea that you must eat to keep up your strength. Unless 
you need food you are far better off without it. To eat three 
or four times a day because you are in the habit of doing so is 
a positive crime against the body, for nobody needs three or 
four mealS" a day, and to eat when you do not need it is to 
load up the body with a weight of material that, even if one 
got rid of it immediately, would require a considerable expen¬ 
diture of energy. But, unfortunately, an excess of food is 
not thus easily disposed of. Nature endeavors to teach man 
the lesson of controlling his abnormal desires by making the 
excessive food a source of pain and discomfort to him. He 
suffers from flatulency, heartburn, acidity of the stomach, and 
a thousand and one other manifestations of indigestion, all of 
which are sentinel warnings against yielding to the unnatural 
cravings of abnormal appetite. But it may be asked, How 
shall I know that my appetite is normal? The test of the 


OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


495 


normal appetite is this: that one is prepared to eat the plainest, 
simplest, most unattractive food without appetizing condi¬ 
ments, sauces or strong seasonings, flavors, or sweetening to 
make it palatable; to eat such food dry and chew it until it 
becomes delicious and perfectly liquefied so that it can be swal¬ 
lowed without recourse to tea, coffee, cocoa or any other liquid 
with which we too often wash down our food. 

The second rule is of equal importance with the first. 
Never eat without enjoyment. There is no truth more posi¬ 
tive and certain in the whole realm of life than the truth that 
food, to be properly digested and assimilated by the stomach 
and the alimentary canal, must be enjoyed while being eaten. 
Contentment should always be present, and never more so than 
in the process of eating. When food is enjoyed the salivary 
glands are active and the saliva mingles freely with the food. 
The gastric glands are active in the stomach and pour forth 
their liquids in copious quantities and in the best possible chem¬ 
ical condition to perform their important labors. Under no 
other circumstances are these digestive liquids furnished in the 
proper quantities, or the proper strength. We all know how 
one’s mouth waters at the thought of some particularly 
palatable food. The actual necessity for a perfect digestion 
and assimilation is, that one should be in this condition of 
“watering of the mouth” before he begins every meal. Food 
eaten under these conditions is almost sure to be easily digested 
and assimilated, and can then produce that vigor of body and 
mind that the normal man and woman so much desire. If you 
have a craving for those things that you know are unwhole¬ 
some, substitute for them some article of food containing the 
same constituents. For instance, if you have an intense desire 
for candy, it may indicate that you have a real need for sweets, 
and this craving can be perfectly satisfied by the use of honey 
or such naturally sweet fruits as dates, raisins and the like. 

Third. Never eat to repletion. If one follows the normal 
hunger-appetite, there is very little fear that he will eat too 
much. But man has for so many centuries perverted his natural 
instincts of appetite, that it will take some time before he can 




496 M A CFA DDE N’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


rely upon his appetite, unguided and uncontrolled by reason. 
It is better, therefore, to err on the safe side. There is very 
‘little danger, if a man enjoys every mouthful of food he eats, 
that he will take too little. The universal experience of the 
race is that we eat too much. Hence, there need be no alarm 
that one will not eat enough. It is far better to stop before 
satiation than to eat one mouthful more than the body actually 
requires. Every ounce of food taken into the body beyond its 
normal requirements, even though it be eaten with enjoyment, 
is putting a burden upon the excretory organs that have to get 
rid of it. 

The needs of the body vary according to varying circum¬ 
stances and conditions. When the appetite is normal and 
healthy it will call for the food that is best adapted to supply 
the needs of the body. It will adapt itself to these varying 
circumstances. 

Once let a man thoroughly understand and realize that the 
body is originally self-acting, self-regulating, and that it clearly 
indicates to the alert mind of its owner what are the exact sup¬ 
plies it needs, and he will be able, after he has once got into 
a normal condition, to follow the dictates of his appetite with 
safety, and with most happy and beneficial results. 

Now one should eat to live rather than live to eat. By fol¬ 
lowing this policy you can actually increase your length of life 
from ten to forty years. This statement is not exaggerated. 
Nearly all diseases begin in the stomach and most diseases 
continue in the stomach. This organ, when diseased, helps in 
the process of making impure blood, blood that contains all 
sorts of poisons. This vile stuff is sent coursing through the 
body, and yet people wonder why they are not well. In many 
instances they might more reasonably wonder why they are 
alive. 

The average individual is of the opinion that one must eat 
three meals a day in order to keep up one’s strength. This is a 
most erroneous and harmful idea. It is not what you eat that 
keeps up your strength, it is what you digest and assimilate. 
When you are in the habit of eating more than you need you 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


497 


will actually gain in strength by simply lessening the amount 
of food you eat. The truth of this statement can be relied upon 
in every instance. Simply try lessening the quantity of food 
you are eating by one-fourth, and then test your strength day 
by day, and you will find there is a perceptible increase. It will 
not be necessary to change your habits in any waj^, simply adopt 
this suggestion, and you will certainly be rewarded by an 
increase of strength if you are following the usual practice of 
eating three meals a day whether you need them or not. This 
result is gained because, when you are eating more than you 
need you exhaust the surplus energies ip ridding the body of 
the needless food. 

If one will learn to eat what he needs, is wise enough to 
avoid adding poisons to the body through the stomach, he will 
rarely suffer from chronic diseases. Nearly all filth diseases, 
nearly all diseases that come from accumulated poisons, are the 
result of self-poisoning or auto-intoxication. 

The fourth rule of diet is to eat only food that is whole¬ 
some. Many foods popularly considered wholesome are quite 
the reverse. Of these, white flour products are perhaps the 
most harmful. It is certainly sacrilegious to call this incom¬ 
plete food that is made from it the staff of life. It is more like 
the staff of death. White flour products, if eaten as the prin¬ 
cipal article of diet, will starve the teeth to death. Unless you 
possess extraordinary vitality, the teeth will often become 
mere shells under the influence of a white flour diet, simply 
because the bony elements needed to nourish the teeth are lack¬ 
ing. Remember, your teeth should last throughout your entire 
life. There is really no excuse for the decay and loss of teeth 
that is so frequent, and it is largely caused by the excessive use 
of white bread and other useless foods. 

The fifth rule of diet is to masticate everything thoroughly. 
Food must be chewed thoroughly to secure satisfactory diges¬ 
tive results. Mastication is really a part of digestion. It 
mixes the food with the saliva. Each morsel of food should 
be masticated until it is swallowed unconsciousty. Horace 
Fletcher, the mastication expert, has proved in an extraordi- 




498 MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


nary manner the value of properly chewing one’s food. Many 
may be of the opinion that he has gone to extremes. He says 
that you must chew your food until the flavor has disappeared; 
must continue its mastication until you are able to chew out a 
certain amount of fiber from almost any food that you ordi¬ 
narily eat. Mr. Fletcher claims that the result of masticating 
your food in this manner is that you can live on one-half the 
quantity you are accustomed to eating, and secure therefrom 
a great deal more strength, and better health. Many will say, 
when told the necessity of mastication, that they have no time 
to perform it. It is a far greater waste of time to use up the 
energies of the body trying to digest and assimilate a hastily 
bolted meal than it would be to take the time required for 
proper mastication. For instance, if you have but a few min¬ 
utes to eat, you will often gulp down a large quantity of food, 
and sometimes for hours thereafter you wish that you had not 
eaten that meal. Never eat a meal in a hurry. If you do, you 
are almost sure to regret it, unless you have a stomach of the 
ostrich character. 

How Many Meals a Day? —In America the standard 
number of meals is three per day. In Germany, at least before 
the war, it was five, two of them served to workmen in the field 
or elsewhere. In England, the conventional number of meals 
is—or was—four. But the European meal is not so likely to 
be a full meal as the American. Taken as a whole, a pros¬ 
perous American is probably the most extravagant eater in the 
world. 

The problem of the number of meals per day cannot be 
separated from the problem of the total quantity of food per 
day. Regular meal hours, so insisted upon by many writers, 
finds no foundation in the habits of animals or primitive man. 
Food was then eaten as it was procured, and varied widely in 
both quantity and quality. The digestive powers were much 
greater because of greater activity. 

The food problem of the civilized and city-dwelling man is 
distinctly different from that of our primitive ancestors. The 
modern man’s need for a less total food consumption, and for 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


499 


the stopping of his meal short of the point of repletion, are 
quite an obvious result of the change in the habits which civili¬ 
zation necessitated. But whether the civilized man who requires 
the smaller food intake should get it by eating frequently and 
lightly, or by eating less frequently, is a question which has 
not been definitely answered by the experience of races or 
individuals. 

The three square meals per day of the prosperous Ameri¬ 
can working man are perhaps not so dangerous, but when he 
continues to do this after he ceases to work, it is the chief 
hygienic evil of the American people. This tendency to overeat 
can most easily be combated by the individual whose general 
customs and social relations continue to set him down before 
the conventional three square meals, by the simple step of 
dropping out one of these meals. 

If a man eat his fill he can get enough food in one meal a 
day to supply him with the necessary nutrition for light labor. 
But this filling the stomach up to its limit once a day results in 
a heavy load on digestion and frequently makes the hours fol¬ 
lowing such a meal rather useless for anything else than the 
function of digestion. Therefore, we find little practical reason 
for adopting the one-meal-a-day plan. 

But, if this quantity of food which the stomach can hold in 
one meal were divided into two meals, we would have a very 
practical and efficient amount for the digestive apparatus to 
handle, and yet would have the feeling that one had eaten a 
meal and not come away too hungry for comfort. 

Inquiry among the readers of Physical Culture Magazine 
has shown that the adoption of two meals results in—first, a 
decreased quantity of food eaten; second, a marked improve¬ 
ment in health, resulting in both losses and gains in weight, 
according to the abnormality; third, in the elimination of diges¬ 
tive disturbances, and the related ills due to the eating in excess 
of the bodily needs. The careful study of these reports leads to 
the conclusion that for both office and household workers the 
system of three meals a day, which has been passed down from 
our pioneer forefathers, is a mistaken plan. 




500 M A CF A DDE N J S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


The evidence, however, is not of such nature as would cause 
a careful thinker to decide that there is any inherent evil in 
partaking of food as frequently as three times a day. The 
benefits received from the change from three meals to two 
meals are more properly to be ascribed to the fact that it is 
a practical means to cut down the total quantity of food 
consumed. 

The testimony of those who reported on the two-meal-a-day 
experiment in thirty-two instances stated the amount of food 
eaten showed a decrease of total food consumed; six reported 
no change in the amount, and three reported an increase. It is 
frequently emphasized that the dropping out of the breakfast 
or other meal has not resulted in increasing food consumption 
at the two remaining meals. The reports on the amount of the 
decrease in the amount of food taken range from “slight” to 
“more than one-half.” 

Less Intake of Food. —The average of the estimates of 
those who decreased their food intake was twenty-six per cent 
less food consumed in two meals than w r as formerly eaten in 
three meals. It is safe to say that there are forty million adults 
in America today who are doing light labor and still eating 
three meals a day. Fifty cents a day is a low estimate for the 
cost of their food. A saving of twenty-six per cent would mean 
a saving of thirteen cents per day for the forty million—which 
you can figure out. But you will be more interested in the 
forty-seven dollars per year you could save on your own food. 

The economy of time is worth quite as much as the economy 
of food cost. Being obliged to be at a certain place three times 
a day and to “get the family together” if one eats at home, and 
the interruptions and difficulties involved in this third meal, are 
all absolute wastes of energy. 

By cutting out the extra meal you can get that hour a day 
that you have been needing to devote to much neglected out¬ 
door exercise or a course of reading. 

But greatest of all savings of the two-meal-a-day plan is 
that it gives women an opportunity to escape from one-third of 
their kitchen labor. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


501 


Those who tried two meals a day in this test were almost 
entirely from the lighter group of workers. Two-thirds at least 
were those whose work could be classified as clerical. Closely 
related in the* nature of their physical labor were a number of 
school teachers, a couple of college students, two traveling 
salesmen, a preacher, a doctor, a barber, a station agent and a 
weaver. The only men whose work would in* any sense be 
considered heavy were an electrician, a physical director, a 
sailor, a chauffeur and three farmers. Among the women, over 
half were housekeepers. The rest were teachers or clerks. 

A few of those who had tried two meals a day made the 
comment that when engaged in extra hard physical labor they 
find it necessary to go back to three meals. With these excep¬ 
tions there w r as almost unstinted praise for the two-meal plan. 

The effect of two meals a day, which means refraining from 
Qver-eating, is that it tends to bring the body to normal bodily 
weight. That the same change in eating habits should make 
lean people fat and fat people lean sounds a little like the story 
of the satyr who blew on his fingers to make them warm and on 
his soup to make it cold. But we have not far to go for the 
explanation of this paradox. The fat man has a digestive 
system which absorbs surplus food and passes it on to be 
accumulated as fatty globules in the tissues. But when exces¬ 
sive food is forced upon slightly differently organized digestive 
organs, the result is a breaking down of the digestive powers, 
causing dyspepsia, and kindred ills, and these lead to malnu¬ 
trition and underweight. 

The period of rest that comes to the digestive organs from 
changing to the two-meal plan is secured both from a lessened 
consumption of food and a greater time interval between meals. 
The result is that better assimilation develops and when the 
subject is under weight this frequently results in building up 
weight. 

The weight changes of these two-meal experimenters were 
studied by comparing the reported weights with the proper 
weights for the given sex and stature. It is found that the 
change to two meals a day resulted in gains (averaging eight 




502 M A CFA DDE N J S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


pounds) for the men whose original weight would indicate that 
a gain was desirable. For the men who should lose weight 
there was an average loss of thirteen pounds. There were a 
number of men who reported that the change in meal plan did 
not affect their weight. Those whose weights were not affected 
were found to be already very near the ideal weights for their 
heights. 

In this call for experiences with two meals a day, nothing 
was said as to which meal should be omitted. Twenty-seven 
report the omission of breakfast, five report the omission of a 
noon meal, and four report the omission of the evening meal, 
while the four remaining report meal hours of mid-forenoon 
and mid-afternoon. 

Practice is pretty evenly divided as to whether “dinner,” in 
the sense of the heaviest meal, is to be eaten at noon or night. 
There were twenty-one who, when eating two meals, made the 
last meal the heavier. Against this were fifteen who ate a heavy 
dinner at noon and a light supper at night. 

The reports of those who have tried two meals a day are 
almost invariably enthusiastic endorsements of the plan. The 
following are sample comments: “Much improved.” “Do not 
feel so ‘stuffed.’ ” “Tired feeling gone.” “Did not feel so 
ambitious.” “I feel invigorated, do not fatigue so easily.” “In 
about one month I gained ten pounds and felt like a new man.” 

Many observers made note of greater sleepiness in the day¬ 
time when eating the three square meals. One comments: “The 
effect of going without breakfast has been to make my mind 
clearer, wide-awake. I found it easier to study in the morning 
—a feeling of mental vigor, whereas with three meals there is 
a feeling of mental drowsiness—general inefficiency.” 

Making Two Meals a Day Suffice. —The practical con¬ 
clusion from all this is that two meals a day is the sensible thing 
for all those not engaged in heavy manual labor. If for social 
or business reasons the light worker cannot adopt the two-meal 
plan, the next best thing is to eat but one full meal a day. For 
that meal it may be safe to set an abundance of food on the 
table and eat to a point of reasonable repletion. But the other 






















































































% 





















.. 
































































































































Vegetable Turkey.—Mix together three cupfuls of dry bread-crumbs, three 
cupfuls of chopped nuts and three cupfuls of milk. Add one tablespoonful of but¬ 
ter melted, one teaspoonful of powdered sage and salt to taste. Then stir in six 
well-beaten eggs and bake in a buttered pan for twenty minutes in a hot oven. 



Vegetable Roast.—Put through a food chopper enough walnuts to make one 
cupful when ground. Add four cupfuls of bread-crumbs, one grated onion, salt 
to taste, one chopped hard boiled egg, one raw egg, well beaten, and enough milk 
to moisten the mixture. Mix the ingredients well and turn into a well-buttered 
mold of desired shape and bake in a moderate oven for about an hour. Serve hot 
with brown sauce. Some people like the addition of thyme or sage as a seasoning. 


504 


OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


505 


two meals should consist of definite items set forth in limited 
quantities. If one determines to breakfast regularly on half a 
grapefruit and two eggs on toast, the mind and the appetite 
soon become accustomed to such a restricted food intake and 
loses the desire to eat a square meal whenever one sits down 
to the table. 

In eating three meals there is always danger that one will 
eat beyond his capacity to digest. It is impossible for one to 
know real hunger-appetite unless the food of the previous meal 
is digested and out of the way. The results that follow eating 
without this necessary hunger have already been pointed out. 
These can be avoided by seeing to it that each of the three 
meals is of easily digested foods and is small enough in quan¬ 
tity to enable the body to fully utilize it; but this requires both 
care in the selection of foods and self-denial in eating them. 

It should never be forgotten that the more food one puts 
into the stomach above that which is necessary, the less effective 
become the gastric and other digestive juices. The result is, 
all the best elements of the food are not extracted for the needs 
of the body, and at the same time the residue ferments, creating 
poisons that are often absorbed into the blood, there to become 
sources of more or less serious disturbances. Very often the 
“tired feeling” experienced shortly after eating, or shortly 
before another meal is due, is entirely owing to the effect of 
the poisons generated by undigested food that the body has 
been unable to eliminate. 

Those who do hard physical labor are better able to digest 
three meals than those whose work is purely mental, for in 
the destruction of muscular tissue caused by heavy labor there 
is a normal demand made upon the assimilative organs for 
whatever is within their reach. Mental workers, however, make 
no such demand, and the food must be digested in simple 
fashion or evil results are bound to follow. 

The world at large has been trained to believe that regu¬ 
larity in diet and the eating of three meals a day are essential 
to keep up strength and preserve the body in perfect health. 
Neither habit is at all essential. Irregularity in diet is incal- 




506 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


culably better than the regularity which forces men to eat three 
hearty meals whether the normal hunger-appetite exists for 
them or not. In the former case the most perfect health can be 
absolutely and certainly maintained. In the latter, there is no 
power known that can prevent digestive disturbances with 
their consequent discomforts and diseases. 

If the conditions are such that it is necessary for social 
reasons for one to eat three meals a day, endeavor to follow 
with the utmost strictness the principles already laid down: 
1 Eat only the right kind of food. 2. Eat only when you are 
hungry. 3. Be careful to eat less rather than more. 4. If 
there is the slightest suggestion of the approach of illness, miss 
one or more meals. 

It will be appropriate here to give a few suggestions to 
those workers in the large cities whose occupations take them 
away from home during the day, where they have to rely upon 
restaurants, chop-houses, cafes, etc., for their noon meal. 
There are many who would take their luncheon with them did 
they have a proper place to eat it, but this is often impracticable 
or impossible. Some find it inconvenient to follow the plan of 
eating breakfast at home, going without a noon meal, and 
waiting until they return home in the evening before partaking 
of their second meal. They either feel somewhat faint late in 
the afternoon, or else when they get home at night they are 
apt to eat more than is good for them. Perhaps for those who 
come in these categories, it would be better to abstain from 
breakfast. It is very seldom that the abnormal craving for 
food, and sensation of emptiness of the stomach, continues 
longer than a few days, and almost invariably there comes a 
delightful sense of mental and physical freedom owing to 
abstinence. At noon one should seek out the most convenient 
place where he can secure the most nourishing and palatable 
food. The following foods can nearly always be secured and 
they form a good and substantial basis from which to select. 
Other nourishing and palatable dishes can be added as they are 
discovered. 

Whole wheat nr other entire drain product, with cheese and 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


507 


salad or fruit. Vegetables, salads and stewed fruit or baked 
apples, etc. Dairy products, milk, cream, eggs, etc. If res¬ 
taurants are “bad” then patronize the grocery store, where 
raisins, shelled almonds or other nuts can he secured; also fruit, 
cheese and cereals. Do not eat in a hurry. 

Drink wisely and intelligently, that is, sip very slowly a 
small quantity of cool (not ice cold) water until satisfied. 

It is a common thing for men to follow their noon meal 
in the city with a cigarette, cigar or pipe, sometimes accom¬ 
panying this with a cup of black coffee. They feel that such 
smoking and drinking has a soothing influence and, therefore, 
may be tolerated. To those who have been the slaves to this 
habit and who have any desire whatever to be free, let me say 
that if you will eat the right kind of food in the manner sug¬ 
gested, you will have no desire either for the sedative influence 
of tobacco or the stimulation of coffee. The craving for both 
unquestionably arises from a diseased condition of the stomach. 
When a healthful condition is brought about by proper habits 
of diet, these cravings are found to disappear totally. 

Plan Menus Sensibly. —The old-fashioned American 
farm family placed everything on the table at once, and passed 
it around and around again. Theoretically dinner was served 
as one course, but in practice it was a ten or twenty course meal 
if one counts helpings as courses. 

The more urban fashion of serving a meal is to set forth 
part of the food, a single dish or combination of dishes that are 
to be eaten together; to eat this and clear away the dishes and 
then to serve something else. 

Which of these eating habits is followed is a matter of cus¬ 
tom and method of service; its dietetic significance lies only in 
its effects on the kind and amount of food eaten—or wasted. 
For purposes of the present discussion we can count a dish and 
what is supposed to be eaten with it as a course and leave the 
manner of serving to the established habits of the household. 

Considered from the practical standpoints of food cost, 
labor cost and health efficiency, there is little excuse for any 
meal having more than three courses: First, soup; second, 




508 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the heavy dish of the meal, conventionally a meat or meat sub¬ 
stitute, with its side dishes of vegetables or salad; and third, 
dessert. This is the typical dinner approved by custom, simple 
enough for a farmer and fancy enough for a financier. Like¬ 
wise, a breakfast of fruit, cereal and milk or eggs and toast 
is sufficiently complicated even for the man who eats but two 
meals a day. 

Such a planning of meals is sensible. It fits in with our 
habits and is adapted to both rich and poor. Those who have 
been accustomed to more numerous courses need only to eat 
larger portions, while if one has been used to simpler meals, 
he may decrease the size of the servings. The three-course 
service permits of ample variety and the inclusion of soups 
which are economical, of vitamine foods, preferably in the un¬ 
cooked state, and, if the heavy dishes are partly of cereal 
origin instead of wholly of meat, it is consistent with thrift 
and economy. In either case the number of courses should not 
affect the total quantity of food eaten. 

Theoretically we may say that the increase of variety need 
not affect the quantity of food eaten, yet in practice excessive 
variety at the same meal tends to both gluttony and waste. 
Gluttony, because the appetite is stimulated beyond its natural 
demands, and waste, because there is a slight loss in buying— 
the grocer sells the paper as meat; in cooking food sticks to 
the pot; in serving some of the food prepared is often held back 
for second helpings, and this may not be called for; lastly there 
are the left-overs on the plate. The more kinds of food there 
are to be handled in one meal the greater will be the number 
of such wastes and the greater the proportion of the total food 
wasted. 

Variety as a factor in healthfulness is quite a different 
matter. Such desirable variety is more economically secured 
by the change of dishes from meal to meal and from day to 
day, and not from more numerous courses. 

Though two meals are advised, the author realizes that 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


509 


many will not see fit to adopt that plan. The following stand¬ 
ard menu has, therefore, been prepared with three meals, but 
these meals are such that with a little shifting the second meal 
can easily be dismembered and divided between the first and 
last meals. Thus for two meals one would probably transfer 
the “light meat dish” of lunch to breakfast, and the lunch 
vegetable could make a second vegetable at dinner, while the 
bread and butter and sweet dish could be divided as appetite 
dictated. 

Standard Menu. —With the qualification that it is for 
suggestion only, and not to be slavishly followed, I give the 
following standard daily menu. This menu is given for a 
family equivalent to four men at light work, which equals in 
dietetic requirement an average family of husband, wife and 
three children. 

WHEAT POUND ANALYSIS OF DAILY MENU FOR FAMILY 

OF FOUR. 


WHEAT POUNDS DERIVED FROM 

EACH FOOD GROUP. 

Total 

Wheat 

Pounds. 

Cereal 

Group. 

Sugar 

Group. 

Fat 

Group. 

Vitamine 

Group. 

Animal 

Protein 

Group. 

First Meal. 







Fruit . 

.20 


.10 


.10 


Cereal, milk and sugar. 

.70 

.50 

.10 



.10 

Bread, butter or fruit jam. 

.60 

.40 

.10 

”.io” 



Beverage . 

.10 


.05 



’ . 65 ” 

Total for meal. 

1.60 

.90 

.35 

”.io” 

”.io" 

.15 

Second Meal. 







Licht “meat di^b” . 

.70 

.25 


.20 


.25 

Vpcrpfahlp . 

.40 

.05 


.05 

.30 


Bread, butter and sweet.• 

.60 

.40 

.10 

.10 



Total for meal . 

1.70 

.70 

.10 

.35 

.30 

’ .25* * 

Third Meal. 







Soup . 

.40 

.10 


.10 

.10 

.10 

“A/Toot ciihctitntp” . 

.80 

.04 


.15 


.25 

Vpoppf jihlp or 

.40 



.10 

.30 


V CgCldUlC ui ... 

T^pccprt . 

.40 

’’.is’’ 

”.io” 

.05 


.10 

Ppupraorp ' .. 

.10 


.05 


.05 


q n rl hlltfpr. 

.60 

.50 


.10 



Total for meal. 

2.70 

1.15 

.15 

.50 

“.45" 

’ .45 ’ 

Total for day. 

6.00 

2.75 

.60 

.95 

.85 

.85 

Percentage of total. 

1.00 

.46 

.10 

.16 

.14 

.14 


Vol. 1—32 



























































510 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the total for the day being 6.00. A rough approximation of 
the division of food substances among the five food groups is 
also given. Detailed accuracy here is not practical. The time to 
check up your diet by the group system is when you go over 
the monthly food expenditures and not in planning each dish 
or meal. The idea that it is necessary to health to balance 
each meal with certain proportions of various food elements 
has no scientific foundation. A man can live for thirty days 
without food, which means that there is stored in the properly 
nourished body enough of food elements of all sorts to support 
life for that length of time. This is further established by 
the fact that deficiency diseases, such as pellagra, which are 
due to lack of a balanced diet, require several months on such 
unbalanced diet to develop them. Therefore, if the general 
average of a month’s food intake be well balanced there is no 
need to worry over the balance of a particular meal or day. 

With the qualification that it is for suggestion only and 
not to be slavishly followed, I give the following standard 
daily menu. 

Wise Food Combinations. —A single food rich in varied 
nutritive compounds is better than a variety of foods eaten 
at the same meal. In fact, we should aim at simplicity in our 
diet rather than the reverse. The subject of food combina¬ 
tions, therefore, needs to be considered not so much to learn 
how to make various combinations, but also to learn to avoid 
all those that are not actually essential to supplement food 
deficiencies. 

It has been said that “all foods agree with the consumer, 
but they do not agree with one another”—and this is very 
largely true! 

In preparing proper food combinations no food element 
should be represented out of its due proportion. 

For instance, an excess of fat in combinations makes foods 
greasy and heavy and hard to digest, the body can not assimi¬ 
late excess protein, and rejects it with much irritation and ex- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


511 


pense to itself; the carbohydrates are stored as fat and persons 
of good assimilation with a tendency to taking on weight must 
carefully avoid the presence of too great an amount of the 
starches and sugar in their diet. The question of the relative 
amounts of protein and the other elements needed in the diet 
and the conditions governing amounts of protein and other 
food elements required will be presently discussed. 

The pivots on which to turn in combining foods are: (1), 
that the results obtained will provide the nutritive properties 
in their due proportions—proteid, fat, carbohydrates and 
mineral salts; (2) that the combination will be tasteful and 
attractive and thoroughly enjoyable. Combinations that will 
meet the test of these two are right combinations, perfect com¬ 
binations; combinations that can meet only one are not very 
satisfactory. If the combination is nutritious but not enjoy¬ 
able, not much benefit is derived from its eating. Only food 
that is thoroughly enjoyed is well digested. If, on the other 
hand, it is enjoyable, but not nutritious, though it has the 
advantage of being thoroughly ingested, it will not produce 
enough energy for the body. Both are absolutely essential. 

The staple foods used in the household of the vegetarian or 
non-meat eater are: vegetables, cereals, eggs, milk, flour, fruit, 
nuts, butter and cheese. 




512 


MACFAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


If meats are eaten, they should be mixed with potatoes, rice 
or turnip, foods in which carbohydrates are the chief nutritive 
elements. Meats are also rich in fat, so, speaking roughly 
from the standpoint of nutrition, this is an excellent founda¬ 
tion for a meal, and eaten in sufficient quantities with bread 
will of itself be a satisfactory meal. It is not the most health¬ 
ful meal, for reasons which have in these pages been brought 
against the use of meat as a food. 

Among the vegetables, the dried legumes, peas, beans and 
lentils, are the high proteid foods. These articles of diet also 
have considerable carbohydrates, but with the exception of pea¬ 
nuts, lack fat. When lima beans are cooked plain they should 
be served with butter, which will balance the dish. Other ways 
of combining fat with beans are in the forms of purees (in 
purees, the cooked vegetable is pressed through a sieve and 
to this smooth, thick pulp seasoning and other ingredients are 
added). They may also be baked with tomatoes as a flavoring, 
and the fats added in the form of olive oil or butter. Bean 
soups are completed by the addition of milk, cream or white 
sauces, made of butter, flour and water or- milk. The bean 
or pea porridges (purees), if tastefully made, that is, by 
boiling another flavoring vegetable with them (onion, leek, 
tomato or celery), are nutritious and make, with the addition 
of a simple salad and dessert, a complete meal. 

The egg is an important food in almost every form of 
dietary. Its nutritive elements are proteid and fat, but it is 
lacking in the carbohydrates. To supply this »we combine 
eggs with rice, flour, cornstarch, potatoes, milk and bread 
crumbs which contain the needed starches and sugars. When 
eggs do not enter as an ingredient into other foods, but are 
served as a separate course, soft or hard boiled, poached or 
scrambled, they are eaten with bread, either plain or toasted. 
Thus do we supply the missing starch and the bulk. 

In the non-meat diet, the animal products, butter, milk, 
cheese, cream and olive oil and the nuts provide the fat. 
Butter is combined with foods in various ways. Foods are 
flavored with it in cookery and it enters into sauces. Almost 

Vol. 5—33 ~ y 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


513 


every form of vegetable may be served with butter or with a 
sauce. Since butter is more digestible in the raw state, foods 
should be flavored with it after they are cooked. In the case 
of vegetables and cereals this is an easy matter. The reason 
why we can make a satisfying meal on bread and butter and 
milk or on bread and butter alone, is that in either combination 
all the nutritive elements are present in sufficient proportions. 

Many people consider cheese indigestible. The reason for 
this is that they often do not realize how highly concentrated 
a food cheese is. Added to this, we have the statement that 
cheese is nearly twice as nourishing as meat. Such statements 
coming from authorities cause people to forget that whereas a 
pound of meat includes fat, bone, gristle and other inedible 
portions which are wasted, a pound of cheese contains prac¬ 
tically no waste, and therefore can not be used in anything like 
the same quantities as meat. Many people have argued that 
though they can eat a half-pound of meat enjoyably, 
the same amount of cheese afforded them distress, and 
therefore concluded that cheese was a most indigestible food. 
Cheese in its ordinary form goes best with bread, especially 
because it is so highly concentrated. Incidentally, it may 
be noted that while bread is lacking in fat, the percentage of 
this element in cheese is almost four-tenths. Cheese is also 
very rich in protein, and combined with bread is one of those 
foods of which a little bit goes a long way. It is too rich to 
be eaten alone. In cooking, cheese is combined with rice, 
macaroni, spaghetti and similar foodstuffs because they are 
lacking in fat. In souffles, rarebits, milk is used to dilute the 
cheese. 

Cream and milk are mixed with foods in ways that have 
been mentioned, and they will be referred to again. The 
prime element of most of the nuts is fat, though several varie¬ 
ties contain a fair amount of protein, and some of them are 
quite rich in carbohydrates. The nut and fruit diet is repre¬ 
sented to be an ideal diet, as by this combination, not only are 
all the elements supplied, but the sugar is supplied in the 
purest and most digestible form, and the fruit-juices are ex- 




514 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ceedingly healthful. To my mind, too, the fruits are also 
valuable because the amount of water they contain serves 
to offset the richness of the nuts. Both fruits and nuts should 
he included in the ordinary dietaries. Nuts eaten with bread 
are an excellent combination, and will be found to be actually 
delicious. 

Those important foods, the cereals and the starchy vege¬ 
tables, are the chief sources of supply of the carbohydrates. 
Cereals contain also proteid, and when served with milk or 
butter and sugar will provide the basis of a nourishing meal. 
The cereals, because of the amount of starch they contain, are 
balanced by the addition of fats, and as they are rather in¬ 
sipid, the juicy vegetables are sometimes added for flavor. 
Thus, rice is baked with tomatoes and cheese; combined with 
milk, butter and eggs in puddings, etc. The same rule of 
combination applies to the Italian pastes, spaghetti, macaroni, 
etc. Rice, barley, farina, oatmeal and other cereal prod¬ 
ucts used in combination with fresh green vegetables 
make a wholesome dish, which, were the latter used 
alone, would have very little food value; for instance', 
fresh green pea soup, with noodles or macaroni; celery 
soup with barley; tomato soup with rice. Owing to 
their total lack of fat and protein, potatoes, the chief of the 
starchy vegetables, should be combined with foods contain¬ 
ing these elements. I have cited as an example the use of po¬ 
tatoes and meat together. Their very mild flavor makes them 
adaptable for combination with various other food stuffs. 
This is also the case with rice. It will be evident from what 
has been said in this paragraph that one of the points to be kept 
in mind in combination is that of using together foods for the 
purpose of taste and flavoring. The manner in which this may 
be done is suggested by the examples given. 

There is a large class of vegetables not suitable in the 
diet from a nutritive standpoint. The percentage of pro¬ 
teid, fat or carbohydrates is practically nil, but they are 
valuable because of their salts and acids. Where economy is 
an important consideration, these vegetables should not be used 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


515 


except when in season. The green vegetables, like lettuce, 
celery, cabbage and chicory, may be combined with eggs and 
olive oil and lemon juice, or with cream sauces, in the form of 
salads. In salads we have the pleasing results of the combina¬ 
tion of the necessary food elements; protein in the form of the 
egg, fat in the oil and the mineral salts in the green vegetable. 
Other non-nutritious vegetables, like carrots, turnips, aspara¬ 
gus, Brussels sprouts, squash and spinach, are best simply 
cooked and seasoned with butter and salt. They may also be 
served with cream sauces. 

Fruits have already been touched upon in an earlier para¬ 
graph. They can be formed in pleasing combinations, but 
they are best served in their natural state. 

As to combinations that are to be avoided, it is hard to 
render any strictures hi the matter, much depending on indi¬ 
vidual idiosyncrasies, power of digestion, etc. There are indi¬ 
viduals who can not combine sugar with their food in any form, 
and we have all read the opinion of persons who have declared 
sugar to be even more unhealthful than meat, and that it has no 
place in the physical culturist’s dietary. To set this up as an 
absolute rule is utter nonsense, for what should be inferred 
from such experiences is not that sugar is unhealthful for all 
(except in excess, and that is an argument against excess and 
not sugar), but only for the individuals who have found that 
it has affected them, for ill. On the other hand, many persons 
are made sick by eating strawberries, others still can not 
abide tomatoes or onions in combination with other 
foods and even not at all; and so one may go through 
almost the entire catalogue of foods and find appar¬ 
ently healthy persons who do not like them. This may 
not be normal, but the fact is to be faced, and when one dis¬ 
covers that certain foods or combinations thereof do not agree 
with him. no matter how healthful the professors or others may 
declare them to be, there is only one thing to be done, and that 
is to avoid them. When a food does not agree with you, no 
matter what may be said for it as far as others are concerned, 
it is unhealthful for you. A tendency present in some house- 




516 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


holds is to serve too many sweet combinations, and this tendency 
should be watched and overcome. 

To summarize the statements that have been made, I am pre¬ 
senting a table, grouping the principal foods used in the vege¬ 
tarian’s dietary in such a way as to enable one to tell at a glance 
the nutritive elements for which the food is especially valuable 
and suggesting the articles of food that would supplement 
what they lack. This is merely suggestive and can be ex¬ 
panded by each individual as occasion requires. 

FOODS 

VALUABLE FOR 

COMPLEMENT 

Eggs, 

Cheese, 

> Proteids and Fat <j 

fSugar and Starch: Rice, 
Potatoes, Flour, Bread, 
l Etc. 

The Legumes: n 

Peas, 

Beans, 

Lentils, ' 

> Proteid and Car- \ Fat: In the form of 

bohydrates | Butter and Oil. 

Cream, k 

Butter, 

Olive Oil, 

Olives, 

Nuts: 

Almonds, 

Brazil Nuts, 

Filberts, 

Hickory, 

English Walnuts, ^ 

► Fat < 

Proteids and Carbohy¬ 
drates: Legumes, Cere¬ 
als, Fruits. 

Cereals: > 

Barley, 

Buckwheat, 

Oats, 

Rice, 

Rye 

Wheat, 

Breads, 

Macaroni, 

Etc., J 

> Carbohydrates 

and Proteids 

Fats: Butter, Cheese, 

Cream, etc. 

Potatoes, 

Sweet Potatoes, 

Corn, 

Parsnips, 

Sugar, 

Fruits, 

> Carbohydrates < 

Proteids and Fat: Eggs, 
Milk, Cheese, etc. 

Lettuce, 

Celery, 

Cabbage, 

Spinach, 

Onions, 

Tomatoes, 

Cress, 

Cauliflower, 

Brussels Sprouts, etc., 

Green Vegetables and 
► Others Valuable for Or-< 
ganic Salts 

Made into Salads; Com¬ 
bined with Butter, Eggs 
and Milk. 




























CHAPTER XXI 


PROBLEMS OF FOOD ECONOMY. 

T HE problems that center around the question of food and 
health are many and varied. Diet has in the past been 
considered too much as a single problem, and any man 
who had a new or good idea concerning foods was inclined to 
offer it as a sole requisite to the healthful diet. With the 
progress of science these narrow views have found their place 
in the larger science of dietetics, and are now recognized for the 
partial truth they contain. 

Many of these seeming disharmonies have, with further 
light, been shown to be only different aspects of the same gen¬ 
eral problem. Dr. Wiley, while doing a great work, for a long 
time was content to consider foods wholly from the standpoint 
of their purity. 

The orthodox government chemists have considered foods 
chiefly with respect to their total calory content and their per¬ 
centage of protein. These long quoted authorities have been 
proved to be absolutely in error in advocating a high protein 
diet when the chief trouble with the American diet was that the 
protein was already too great. 

Vegetarianism has, in its opposition to excessive meat eat¬ 
ing, set forth a great dietetic truth, though the reasons given 
against meat were not always the correct ones. 

The science of cookery taught in the domestic schools of the 
country has been largely based upon the chemical analysis of 
foods, and thousands of young women have been drilled in 
laborious calculations of protein, carbohydrates, fats and cal¬ 
ories, to a degree of accuracy that was entirely unnecessary and 
fruitless of practical results in either health or economy. 

Cost of Living. —The cost of living has been the phase of 
dietetics that has had the largest appeal in the newspapers, but 
the solutions offered have usually been to eat rice, cheap meat 
cuts and various left-overs. Such a program of diet economy 


517 


518 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


is an insult to our intelligence. There should be no left-overs; 
as for cheap cuts of meat, to eat them may help the individual 
to economize, but it will not create any more meat in the 
national larder, but only raise the price of cheap meat, and 
lower the price of the now expensive cuts—thus taking money 
out of the poor man’s pocket and lowering the food bill of the 
rich. 

The advocacy of the importance of flavor in food, while 
long recognized economically by the greater price at which 
highly flavored foods are sold, has not had orthodox backing 
until recent years, when at the hands of Horace Fletcher and 
others it has received its proper attention. 

The claim for a natural diet has always been a leading idea 
of intelligent health writers, and has of recent years received 
scientific backing in the discoveries concerning the necessity of 
mineral salts, the value of vitamines, and the necessity of a 
proper balance of acidity and alkalinity in our daily menu. 

Without pretense at having been an oracle of truth, or 
miraculously escaping error, it is not without pleasure that 



Phottograph by Doubleday, Page & Co. 


A honey-comb in its natural state, with the bees that produced it, 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


519 


the writer can look back over the long existence of Physical 
Culture Magazine and realize that its dietetic teachings have 
been very closely in harmony with scientific facts recently 
brought to light. The present views favoring low protein are 
quite in harmony with vegetarianism; undenatured foods which 
we have long advocated are now shown to contain the essential 
salts and the vitamines, besides which the importance of a 
natural appetite to digestion has received high endorsement. 
These are a few instances where the dietetic teachings of 
Physical Culture have been vindicated by the recent progress 
of science. Authorities like Dr. Wiley, the authors of govern¬ 
ment bulletins, orthodox physicians writing on food, all of 
which twenty or ten years ago wholly ignored the Physical 
Culture teachings, are today writing food literature closely in 
harmony with the views which I constantly advocated. 

The United States government has copiously issued food 
bulletins for the dietetic education of the American public. 
These publications have not only been widely distributed, but 
have formed the basis for the text-books and teachings of the 
domestic science courses of our schools. 

But the government’s entire program of popular food edu¬ 
cation has been woefully handicapped by a purely theoretical 
conception of the foundations of food science that rests upon 
laboratory chemistry, rather than upon direct study of the 
effect of food upon men. 

Early Food Chemistry. —The early food chemists, in 
their efforts to analyze foods, found such a hopelessly complex 
array of chemical substances, that they simplified matters by 
dividing the substances into groups which could be chemically 
detected by comparatively simple means. These chemical 
groups, which have for years been considered the orthodox 
grouping for food analysis, were as follows: Water, Protein, 
Carbohydrates, Fat and Ash. 

The above grouping was selected because it permitted of 
the adoption of a feasible method of analysis rather than 
because there was any evidence that the analysis of food into 
such components would furnish us with knowledge that would 




520 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


solve the problems of human dietetics, and enable the average 
man or woman to gain increased efficiency from their daily bill 
of fare. 

Briefly, the methods of these analyses are as follows: The 
percentage of water in the food sample is determined by drying 
the sample in a stream of warm hydrogen. 

The protein is found by analyzing for the element nitrogen, 
protein compounds in food being the only ones containing nitro¬ 
gen. The term proteins may include widely different sub¬ 
stances, some of which are deadly poisons, others highly essen¬ 
tial nutrients, while yet others are inert substances, both useless 
and harmless. 

The chemist next proceeds to determine the amount of fat 
present by dissolving it out with ether. 

The ash is now found by burning the food sample at suf¬ 
ficiently high temperatures to destroy all the organic or carbon 
compounds. This determination of ash is of little significance 
from a dietetic standpoint. In the first place, a grain of utterly 
worthless sand or other impurities will thus register as ash 
along with organic phosphorus or iron compounds, the 
presence or absence of which, even in minute quantities, may 
determine matters of life or death. 

After the above analyses have been made, the chemist 
usually subtracts their totals from 100, and calls the remaining 
figure the percentage of carbohydrates. As in most of the 
other food groups, the carbohydrates so found may contain 
essential, useless or harmful substances. The most soluble 
fruit sugars register as carbohydrates, along with the indiges¬ 
tible cellulose—yet the human body may need cellulose even 
more than it needs the sugar, for it utilizes each for a very 
different purpose. 

A last step in the work of the analytical food chemist was 
the determination of the number of calories or heat-producing 
units. 

The chemist now had a series of analyses of the various foods 
showing the percentage of water, protein, carbohydrates, fat 
and ash, and the number of calories per pound. The next task 









Mashed Potato Pears.—Boil as many large mealy potatoes as necessary. 
When done mash thoroughly, moisten with milk, add one tablespoonful of butter 
and mold into pears, using cloves for stem. Garnish with parsley before sending 
to the table. Gold boiled potatoes may be used up in this manner. 



Cheese Pockets.—A half a pound of pot cheese (any fresh white cheese will 
do), two cups cf flour, a quarter of a teaspoon of salt, three eggs and enough milk 
to make a dough that can be rolled out to a thickness of one-quarter inch. Mix the 
cheese with one egg, use the other two for the dough. 


5 22 



OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


523 


was to find what to do with all this highly interesting informa¬ 
tion. Obviously, if he but knew the amounts of these food 
elements required by the human body, it would then be pos¬ 
sible to prescribe a dietary containing so much protein, carbo¬ 
hydrates, etc., thus finding a use for the result of all this 
laboriously derived information. 

But no one knew how much of these elements the human 
body required. Means of determining the proper amount of 
food for animals could be estimated pretty accurately by 
experimentation, but the perfect diet for human beings was 
harder to establish because human life was too highly valued to 
be experimented upon as one can with pigs and chickens. 
Hence, the food chemist, not being able to determine experi¬ 
mentally the minimum, maximum or optimum chemical require¬ 
ments of the human body, resorted to the expedient of deter¬ 
mining how much of these food elements various types of people 
did eat in their ordinary course of three square meals a day. 
The resulting figures, especially those derived from American 
sources, showed the most bountiful consumption of meats, hence 
of protein, which is a predominating substance in meat foods. 
From this point on, the reasoning of the government food 
chemist became quite simple. Working for the American 
Government, they were perforce extremely full of American 
patriotism. Reasoned they: First, the American citizen eats 
more food, and especially more protein food, than any other 
people in the world. Second, the American people are the 
most vigorous, intelligent, civilized and important people on 
earth, hence the enormous supply of ham and eggs they eat 
must agree with them or they would be sickly, stupid, puny, etc. 

Thus, dietary standards were made up wholly oblivious to 
the fact that the chief fault of the diet of a prosperous people is 
that of over-eating on things that seem good to the pampered 
palate. Instead of becoming a corrective factor, the govern - 
ment food science encouraged the existing evil tendencies in 
the American habits of eating . 

Food Science Advance. —Within the last fifteen years 
great strides have been made in food science, much of which 




524 MACFAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


has been done by the unofficial efforts of private investigators. 
Among other things, we have learned that what men do when 
left to their own blind folly, and what men should do, are as 
different in the business of eating as in other phases of human 
existence. 

Of late years there has been a growing suspicion on the 
part of practical dietetic workers that the protein, carbohy¬ 
drates and fat system of analyzing food was thoroughly im¬ 
practical as a basis for applied dietetics. It was a case of tell¬ 
ing too much and not telling anything practical. To really 
follow a standard calling for certain amounts of protein, carbo¬ 
hydrates and fats makes the planning and preparation of the 
daily meals a task in computation hardly less formidable than 
the work of an astronomer in calculating an eclipse. 

So much more fond are we of preaching abroad than of 
practicing at home, that it is safe to say that not one in a hun¬ 
dred food chemists and dietetic text-book writers knew or cared 
how much carbohydrate, protein and fat were served upon his 
own table. 

It is not without a smile that we observe that in the case of 
feeding domestic animals, notably chickens, the government 
food chemists elaborated a similarly impractical system to the 
one set forth as a guide for human nutrition. But the poultry 
feeder must be practical ~r fail in business, whereas there are 
too many factors entering into the final success or failure of 
the human being for the results of good or bad feeding to be so 
directly observable. 

The carbohydrates, fat and protein system of poultry feed¬ 
ing is still published in the poultry bulletins and text-books, 
and accepted in good faith by the city man who buys a chicken 
farm and prescribes food for hens as seriously as a young doc¬ 
tor plans the composition of pills. But the poultry growers 
who have been all their lives in the business received the govern¬ 
ment bulletins in good faith, made fair test of their workings 
and discarded them for a simpler system of food prescriptions 
which is more practical and is in general use on successful 
chicken farms today. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


525 


This system of poultry feeding is one which groups the 
foods into five groups. This grouping is made in a common- 
sense way and depends upon the origin of the foods rather than 
upon detailed chemical analysis. The poultry man thinks of 
chicken feeds in the following natural groups: 1, Water; 2, 
Grain; 3, Greens (or succulent vegetables); 4, Meat (or 
animal protein); 5, Mineral (or grit). The poultry feeder 
learns what proportion of the above groups his fowls at various 
ages and conditions should have, and he proceeds to provide 
these from the most available source in each group. On the 
Pacific Coast he feeds wheat, while in the East he feeds corn. 
On the sea coast he feeds fish scrap for meat, whereas inland, 
packing house meat scrap is used, or in dairy districts, skim- 
milk. The green foods used may be alfalfa, rye, kale, or any 
of a dozen others that are cheaply produced. 

The poultry man recognized that there is the problem of 
variety in food forms. Chickens have appetites that must be 
catered to, though they are less whimsical than the appetites of 
humans, for appetites are largely of mental origin. This 
system of chicken feeding applied with common sense is prac¬ 
tical and successful. It results in the fowls receiving the essen¬ 
tial food elements required for their nutrition, without involving 
the owner in chemical calculations. It was not so much a 
question of the chemist being wrong, but for practical use their 
systems are superfluous. 

Serious errors in human dietetics are very common, and 
become more common the further humanity is removed from 
the natural selective instincts developed in the early stages 
of human evolution. The instincts were never entirely right, 
but they were sufficient to enable the human race to survive. 
But with the progress of civilization, foods are elaborated 
and disguised, and human habits so changed that the primi¬ 
tive instincts of food selection become nullified by artificial 
tastes and artificial habits; hence, we must have some sort of 
intelligent food guidance to bring us back to an adequate diet. 
Moreover, there is no reason why it should not be possible for 
science to improve on nature in matters of diet, as has 




526 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


been accomplished in numerous other phases of human affairs. 

The investigation of food chemistry is all right in its place, 
but in addition we need an every-day system for balancing the 
diet which would remedy the common errors into which 
humanity is prone to fall, without troubling the individual with 
a mass of chemical technology which he cannot understand. 

In an effort to enable people to plan their diets in a simple 
yet efficient way, and to consider at once both health and 
economy, the Food Department of Physical Culture worked 
out a plan of considering all foods in the following five natural 
groups: Cereals, Sugar, Fat, Vitamines, and Animal Protein. 
About the same time, the government experts at Washington 
independently worked out and published a food group system 
that was remarkably similar, differing in fact only in the 
naming of one group and in the placing of a few items. 

The Physical Culture grouping of the various foods is 
shown in the table giving the detailed wheat-pound figures. 
This table you will find in Chapter XVI. I give below an 
extract from a government bulletin which shows their essen¬ 
tially similar system of classification, and explains the use of 
the system. It will also be interesting to the reader to compare 
these similar systems with the food groups as worked out by 
McCullom and stated near the close of Chapter XVII. The 
chief distinction of McCullom’s grouping is the placing of milk 
in a group by itself. The importance of milk in the diet is such 
that it really belongs in several groups. For simplicity we 
retain it in the animal protein group, where it should be con¬ 
sidered the most important item. The physical culturist will 
in fact draw all his animal protein from milk, milk products 
and eggs, and hence have no need to consider meats as a 
separate group. 

Government Food Group Plan. 

If the housewife will group the various foods in her pantry, 
vegetable bins, and refrigerator into five simple groups and 
will see that foods from each of the groups appear in each day’s 
meals, she can feel sure that she is giving her family the eight 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


527 


different substances which the body needs for well-being. This 
grouping will help the housekeeper who wishes to save money 
or time to simplify her meals without making them one-sided 
or incomplete. It will enable her to determine whether the 
meals supply all the different materials needed and will pre¬ 
vent substituting one food for another which has an entirely 
different use. 


Group 1.—Fruits and Vegetables. 


Without these the food would be lacking in mineral sub¬ 
stances needed for building the body and keeping it in good 
working condition; in acids which give flavor, prevent constipa¬ 
tion, and serve other useful purposes; and in minute quanti¬ 
ties of other substances needed for health. By giving bulk to 
the diet they make it more satisfying to the appetite. 


Foods Depended on for Mineral Matters, Vegetable Acids, 
and Body-Regulating Substances. 


FRUITS. 
Apples, pears, etc. 
Berries. 

Oranges, lemons, etc. 
Bananas. 

Melons. 

Etc. 


VEGETABLES. 

Salads: lettuce, celery, etc. 
Green peas, beans, etc. 
Tomatoes, squash, etc. 
Pot-herbs, or “greens.” 
Potatoes and root vegetables. 


Group 2.—Meat and Meat Substitutes. 

These are sources of an important body-building material, 
protein. In the case of children, part of the protein food should 
always be whole milk. 

Foods Depended on for Protein. 

Milk, skim-milk, cheese, etc. 

Poultry. 

Eggs. 

Meat. 

Fish. 

Dried peas, beans, cowpeas, etc. 

Nuts. 

Vol. 1—33 




528 31ACF AD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Group 3.—Foods Rich in Starch. 

Cereals (wheat, rice, rye, barley, oats, and corn) and pota¬ 
toes (white and sweet). Cereals come near to being complete 
foods, and in most diets they supply more of the nourishment 
than any other kind of food. It is not safe, however, to live 
only on cereals. 

Foods Depended on for Starch. 

Cereal grains, meals, flours, etc. 

Cereal breakfast foods. 

Bread. 

Crackers. 

Macaroni and other pastes. 

Cakes, cookies, starchy puddings, etc. 

Potatoes and other starchy vegetables. 

Group 4. — Sugar. 

Unless some of the fuel is in this form the diet is likely to 
be lacking in flavor. 

Foods Depended on for Sugar. 

Sugar. 

Molasses. 

Sirups. 

Honey. 

Candies. 

Sweet cakes and desserts. 

Fruits preserved in sugar, jellies, and dried fruits. 

Group 5.—Foods Very Rich in Fat. 

These are important sources of body fuel. Without a little 
of them the food would not be rich enough to taste good. 
Foods Depended on for Fat. 

Butter and cream. 

Lard, suet, and other cooking fats. 

Salt pork and bacon. 

Table and salad oils. 

Some food materials really belong in more than one group. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


529 


Cereals, for example, supply protein as well as starch; pota¬ 
toes supply starch as well as the mineral matters, acids, cellu¬ 
lose, and body-regulating substances, for which they are espe¬ 
cially valuable; and most meat supplies fat as well as protein. 
The lists given above show some of the common food materials 
arranged in these five groups, according to their most impor¬ 
tant nutrients. Thinking of foods as belonging to these groups 
should help to prevent two mistakes—that of serving meals 
that have not sufficient variety, and that of cutting down in 
the wrong places when economy of time or money is needed. 

The groupings will help the housekeeper who wishes to save 
money or time to simplify her meals without making them one¬ 
sided or incomplete. For example, from these groups, the 
housewife who has been serving bread, potatoes, and rice or 
hominy in one meal, will see that one or even two may be left 
out without omitting any important nutrient. They will show 
her that a custard which is made of milk and eggs, two foods 
from Group 2, would hardly be needed after a meal in which a 
liberal supply of meat had been served, and that a child does 
not need milk at the same meal with an egg or meat. It will 
suggest that baked beans or other legumes, or thick soups made 
of legumes, are substitutes for meat rather than to be eaten 
with meat. 

If, by studying these groups, the housewife finds that she 
has provided tissue-building protein (Group 2), and the neces¬ 
sary though small amount of tissue-building minerals and body¬ 
regulating materials (Group 1), she may safely build up the 
bulk of the diet from whatever materials from the other groups 
that seem economical, wholesome, and appetizing. 

This method of planning prevents substituting one food for 
another which has an entirely different use. In general, 
economy within each group is safer than using an inexpensive 
food from one group in place of an expensive one from another 
group. 

Group Plan Flaws. —The trouble with this government 
system is that it does not go far enough. Certainly it is a great 
improvement over the old carbohydrate, fat, protein teachings, 




530 MACF AD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


where one was supposed to calculate the elements in each food, 
an impractical proceeding. But the new plan fails utterly to 
tell how much of each of the new food groups to use. Shall 
the housewife spend an equal amount for foods of each group, 
or buy equal weights of each group, or is it merely sufficient to 
use some of each group of foods and leave the proportions to 
chance? A little thought will show that neither health or 
economy will be materially helped by a mere insistence of con¬ 
sidering foods in their essential groups without some guidance 
as to the proportions of each group to be used. 

In an effort to rectify this obvious deficiency I have made 
an effort to determine the approximate proportions of foods to 
be derived from each group. The sources of information from 
which we can start to determine such a proportioning of food, 
are: First, the total amount of food available in the nation; 
second, the amount of food selected from these five groups by 
various individuals; third, the amounts of nutrition of various 
sorts needed by the body. 

America’s gross production of cereals, especially of corn, is 
far in excess of what could be used by us as human food. A 
diet proportioned on the total American production of food 
products would be quite unbalanced. 

Fourteen dietaries (ten of which were submitted in the 
Physical Culture Low Cost of Living Contest) were averaged 
and showed the following percentages by food groups—the 
figures are in wheat-pounds, not pounds. 


Cereal group . 

Sugar group .. 

Fat group . 

Vitamine group .... 
Animal protein group, 


.36 per cent. 


12 

15 

18 

19 


A diet based on the total American food production would 
contain eighty-four per cent of the cereal group, which would 
be both unbalanced and unpalatable. But by taking the same 
proportion of cereal foods used in the fourteen dietaries, and 
drawing upon the other groups in proportion to their aetual 
availability in the food supply of the nation, we would have a 
dietary containing the following proportions. 









OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


531 


Cereal group .36 per cent. 

Sugar group .16 “ 

Fat group .20 “ “ 

Vitamine group .12 “ “ 

Animal protein group.16 “ “ 


Considering the physiological need of nutrition, the nation’s 
food supply and the matter of personal economy and palata- 
bility we derive the following ideal proportioning of the diet 
among the five groups: 


Cereal group .50 per cent. 

Sugar group .10 “ “ 

Fat group .15 “ “ 

Animal protein group.15 “ “ 


This last grouping may be considered as a proper standard 
for an economical diet. The proportion of cereals is rather 
higher than most people used to rich food are inclined to take. 
Cereals are the cheapest of our foods. One-half of our total 
nutrition may be safely derived from them, but only when they 
are eaten as whole grains or whole-grain products. This is 
important. If white flour and other denatured cereal products 
are used, the proportion of the cereal group would have to be 
greatly reduced and the milk and other vitamine and protein 
foods would have to be increased. The arguments of McCullom 
and others who appreciate the dangers of a deficient diet are 
for a greater proportion of the “protective foods” only because 
they realize the dangers of deficiency that come from the use of 
denatured cereals. The plan of discarding the vitamines (and 
minerals) of cereals, and making up for this waste by the use 
of excessive quantities of more expensive foods is indefensible 
from the standpoint of either health or economy. 

How to Save in Food Buying. —You cannot gain food 
economy through buying alone or through cooking alone. But 
you must understand both and relate each to the other. By 
mastering the art of buying you will learn how to secure more 
food nutrients for less money, but unless those foods be economy 
ically prepared, served and eaten, your care in buying will 
prove a boomerang, for the economical buying will become a 
tyrant and the appetite will rebel. 

The demand of the appetite and the desire for food must be 













532 


MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the master, and tell you what to buy; for the appetite will only 
demand economical foods when you have cultivated it with 
tasty and appetizing dishes made from the economical prod¬ 
ucts. The efficient way is to buy, or raise in your garden, 
economical foods that will, by their presence, clamor to be used. 
Then you must find ways to use them. This leads to the search¬ 
ing of your experience and the experience of others to find 
recipes and dishes that will use these products. All that you 
try may not find favor with the appetite, but some of them will, 
and these you will adopt, and their use will demand the replen¬ 
ishing of the stock of economical food products. 

When the end of the month comes around, figure up your 
grocery bill, and see to what extent you have drawn upon the 
economical and the expensive foods. Some items will meet 
your approval; others will show extravagance. Now look over 
your list and see what economical foods you have neglected. 
Buy a moderate stock of these and again repeat your effort to 
find ways to use these. 

Don’t drive appetite, don’t make a martyr of your likes and 
tastes, but prepare new dishes and try them. Some of them 
will find favor. As you rebuild your food habits in this fashion, 
you will learn the essential needs of your table so that you can 
figure out ahead about what you need. Then you can look 
about for the most economical form and the most economical 
quantities in which to purchase your supplies. 

I do not intend to recommend any particular system of 
merchandising, but I can at least advise you to investigate for 
yourself all places to buy food. There is your local grocer, 
which all local patriotic community boosters will insist on your 
patronizing. There are also, if you live in or near a city, the 
local department stores which usually carry rather high grade 
goods and charge accordingly. Lastly, there are the great 
mail-order houses, which now have stores located to cover prac¬ 
tically the entire country. These great systems of merchan¬ 
dising have made wonderful progress and the rise in the cost of 
living during the war was said to have enormously increased 
their grocery business on account of their fair prices. 




Spaghetti Timbales. 

—Buivei small cups well 
and sprinkle them with 
bread-crumbs, rsow take 
some cold boiled spa¬ 
ghetti, and beginning in 
me center of the cup, 
coil it around and around 
till the cup is filled with 
the spaghetti. Break an 
egg into the hollow form- 
eu, add salt, and set the 
cups into a pan of hot 
water. Put the pan into 
the oven for a few min¬ 
utes until the eggs are 
set. Turn out on a hot 
timbales. 



plate. Many like a drawn butter sauce served with the 


Vegetable Fish with 
Tomato Sauce. —Soak a 
half-pound of lentils over 
night. Next morning put 
to boil until very tender 
with just enough water 
to cover them. When 
fa water boils away add 
1 more, a little at a time, 
m so that there will be but 
little liquid left when 
done. Strain off all the 
liquid; then rub the len¬ 
tils through a sieve 

*'"***%&»*** v _. ^ spread the pulp on fl.it 

plate to cool and hard- 

• * en. When firm add one 

beaten egg, seasoning to 

taste and enough bread-crumbs to enable you to mold the mixture. Shape as nearly 
as possible like a fish (see illustration), using a large raisin for eye. Brush with 
beaten egg and bake in moderate oven from twenty minutes to half hour, basting 
frequently with melted butter. Serve hot, with tomato sauce. 




Almond Cutlets. —One- 
half pound lima beans, 
two ounces almonds, two 
eggs, one teaspoonful of 
butter. Rub the cooked 
beans through a sieve 

and add to them the al¬ 
monds, which have been 
blanched and run 
through a food-chopper. 

Beat one of the eggs and 
add to the mixture with 
a pinch of salt; mix thor- k 

cughly. Now add the re¬ 

butter (melted) and 
enough bread-crumbs to 
enable you to mold the 

mixture into desired 
shapes. Divide into about 
six portions, shape each 
one like a cutlet, dip into 
egg, then crumbs, and 

fry in butter or bake in the oven. A stalk of celery or parsley may be stuck in each 
one for the bone in the cutlet. Serve with sauce. 


" 



Stuffed Eggs.— Hard- 

boil as many eggs as 
needed. Cut in half care¬ 
fully and take out the 
yolks without breaking 
the whites. Mash the 
yolks very fine and add 
to them one small onion 
grated, salt to taste, 
some chopped parsley 
and enough melted butter 
to make a consistency 
soft but firm enough to 
permit molding into tiny 
balls. Replace into the 
whites and serve. 

533 









OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


535 


If you are inexperienced in mail-order buying you should 
be cautioned against selecting the very cheapest grade of goods 
offered, for that may cause you to become disgusted and repu¬ 
diate the whole system. Sugar is sugar, but when it comes to 
syrup or herring, the lower grades are inferior in quality, and 
even for economy it pays to select your stock from the better 
priced grades in the mail-order catalog. 

Even if you are to purchase most of your foods locally, it 
will pay you to keep an up-to-date mail-order grocery price 
list in the house. Then you are in position to see to it that the 
local grocer does not overcharge you. An instance in point, 
and not at a cross-roads grocery either, was noted in purchasing 
foods for the Physical Culture food laboratory. These sup¬ 
plies were bought from a large New York department store. 
For the most part, the prices seemed reasonable enough, but a 
half pound of walnut meats were charged at 49 cents. Com¬ 
parison with a Chicago mail-order catalog showed walnut 
meats at 59 cents a pound. One of the tricks of the local 
department store is to sell certain staples at a low price and 
add ridiculous profits on the items that are less frequently pur¬ 
chased. The mail-order companies have a more sensible system 
of trading, as they make no claim of offering goods at “less 
than cost,” and yet can be depended on to sell all goods at a 
moderate profit. 

A further advantage of possessing such a food price list is 
that it will enable you to make out a list of current food prices 
at their real cost per wheat pound . Take your catalog and 
copy down a list of the staple foods you use most. Where 
prices are stated in other quantities, reduce them to the pound 
basis, which is feasible as the net weights of the food packages 
are always stated. Now consult the wheat-pound table on page 
510 and set after each food the wheat-pound factor. In a 
third column multiply the prices by the factors, and thus get 
your price per wheat-pound. 

Package foods are rarely sold as cheaply as the same foods 
in bulk. But packages are convenient, and, with the present 
law requiring the printing on the package of the net weight of 




536 MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the contents, there is no occasion for your being cheated by the 
package system. But the government cannot prevent you 
being cheated if you do not use the information which the law 
insists on being put there for your protection. 

When you buy package foods note the net weights. If you 
purchase a package of oatmeal for fifteen cents, and the net 
weight be one pound, ten ounces, figure it out and find that 
you are paying nine and a half cents a pound. If the bulk 
price is eight cents per pound and you use ten pounds of oat¬ 
meal a month, you can figure your month’s saving from bulk 
purchase at fifteen cents and can judge whether the saving is 
worth the difference in quality or convenience which the 
package purchasing will give you. 

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the package 
system of selling foods. If the packages are not too small and 
not too expensive, the system may represent the most econom¬ 
ical way to sell the food. The sugar trust has adopted the 
package system, and the small cloth sacks which they put up 
probably represent no more expense, considering the whole¬ 
sale process of weighing and sacking, than does the worth of 
the paper sack, the grocer’s time and your time, and perhaps 
the time of a line of waiting customers. The sugar sacked at 
the factory is honest weight and is sold at a price that varies 
but little from the bulk retail price. The sugar trust did not 
dare use the package system as a means of boosting the price 
because the public had so long purchased sugar by bulk that 
they would not have stood for such price boosting. It is the 
abuse and not the legitimate use of the package system that has 
called forth the criticism of the food economists. It is the small 
package and the fancy package and the much advertised 
package that are chiefly at fault. If you want to get some 
idea of the legitimate advance in the price per pound for the 
small package of food, consult again the grocery catalog from 
one of the large mail-order houses which list foods in packages 
of all sizes from the small fancy cans and bottles up to hundred- 
pound sacks. 

Lower Cost in Quantities. —You will find this principle 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


537 


running through all food selling as through trading every¬ 
where, that the greater the quantity purchased at one time the 
lower the cost per pound. Foods that keep well may then be 
purchased in fairly large quantities. So far as possible, these 
foods should be bought in the wholesale packages. Sugar, for 
example, may be purchased by the hundred-pound sack, and 
apples by the bushel instead of by the dozen. Farmers may 
save in this fashion more easily than city buyers. People in 
crowded city apartments claim they do not have room to store 
food, yet a thousand pounds of dry, non-perishable food would 
only take up a space of twenty cubic feet, a space two by two 
by five feet, no more than the size of a couple of trunks, and 
buying foods in large units will work a saving of from ten to 
fifty per cent and pay enormous dividends on the value of the 
space required to store them. 

By a little thinking and planning, a little shifting about of 
the furniture, and placing of some boxes or shelves or mouse- 
proof bins under a table or behind a cupboard, you can find 
room for storing sufficient non-perishable foods to enable you 
to purchase them in the larger and more economical sized pack¬ 
ages. Your grocer around the corner may be astonished at 
your change of habit; he has so long been weighing out that 
pound of sugar, and getting down that small size carton of 
corn meal, that he will argue gravely against your seeming 
desire to hoard food. Yet he has been charging you for this 
foolish service, and the wasted labor of a delivery boy trotting 
endlessly to your door with a few days’ allowance of non- 
perishable foods that you might just as well purchase in the size 
package in which he buys it. If he will not accommodate you 
and insists on charging small quantity rates for large-sized 
orders, then go to a large grocer, a wholesale or mail-order 
house, that will sell you at large quantity prices. Even package 
foods, as package cereals, and canned goods may be purchased 
by the dozen or by the case. 

The package-food industry has grown up because of this 
improvident habit of wasteful small purchases. The arguments 
for the small package’s greater purity are largely advertising 




538 MACFAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


talk and used to cover up the enormous profits made possible 
by such a system. During the war, when corn meal was worth 
five cents a pound in quantities, it sold for seven cents a pound 
in bulk, and at fifteen cents for a neat paper carton, containing 
a pound and a half. Fifteen cents is such a small amount that 
most of us pay it uncomplainingly—yet it was ten cents a pound, 
just double what the meal was really worth. Cotton-seed oil 
likewise was worth a dollar and a quarter a gallon, yet when 
purchased in ten-cent bottles sold at the rate of over two dollars 
a gallon. Such are the prices we pay for the small package, 
the endless running to the store, and the grocery boy’s forever 
knocking at the door with endless little glass and pasteboard 
packets for which we are paying handsome profits under the 
guise of convenience, which isn’t convenience at all, but merely 
stupid, expensive trouble, all because we are too lazy to think 
and plan for our future needs. 

Here are a few of the foods that one may purchase in 
quantities and which will keep for many weeks or months, if 
need be, and these foods should make up from fifty to ninety 
per cent of an economical dietary. 

1. Cereals, if kept sealed. 

2. All oils and cooking fats. 

3. All nuts. 

4. All dried fruits. 

5. Sugar, syrup, and honey. 

6. Cured meats, like dried beef or bacon. 

7. All canned goods. 

8. Dry beans and peas. 

9. Eggs in the cheap season, to be put down in water glass. 

10. Smoked, dried, and canned fish. 

11. If one has a cellar—potatoes, apples, and many other 

vegetables. 

Speaking from a fairly large experience in handling prob¬ 
lems of food economy, I advise the calculating of the economy 
of the diet by totaling the foods as purchased in a week or 
month, rather than by keeping track of foods as cooked or 
served. From the financial standpoint it is the food we pay for, 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


539 


and not the food we eat, that counts. The eliminating of waste 
between the grocery bill and what cleaves to the ribs is quite a 
different problem. If one buys carefully and avoids waste, 
the inaccuracy in figuring one’s diet from the grocery bill will 
be less than the inaccuracy that would occur if one attempted 
to estimate it by weighing ready-to-eat dishes, and the latter 
method would involve immeasurably greater labor. Foods, as 
purchased, vary widely in composition, especially meats, but 
calculating foods as served is still less accurate for the reason 
that every cook has a different twist for the recipe and the 
process of cooking greatly influences the percentage of water. 

Do not attempt any elaborate system of bookkeeping, but 
have a hook on which to hang from day to day your grocery 
bills or other slips recording food purchases. See to it that you 
buy everything by the pound and that the number of pounds 
as well as the price are recorded on these slips. Milk may be 
recorded by the quart and eggs by the dozen, as these quantities 
are easily figured in pounds when you make your monthly total. 

If you buy other foods by the dozen, the piece or the bushel, 
find out what the items weigh. A kitchen scales is highly 
desirable both to check the honesty of your grocer and to weigh 
up foods that you cannot buy by the pound. But if you have 
no such scales, make the grocer weigh up such foods until you 
learn how to translate his quantities into pounds. 

On your food slips record, whenever possible, the net food 
weights—the portions you will actually eat. All tables in this 
work are based on the edible portion of the food. In the fol¬ 
lowing section are given the percentage of refuse in the prin¬ 
cipal foods that of necessity are purchased with refuse or waste 
portions. Thus, if your monthly purchases show ten pounds 
of bananas you must subtract thirty-five per cent for waste, 
giving you 6.5 pounds net. All food economy figures should be 
based on such net weights. 

Percentage of Food Waste Purchased. —Meat waste 
should include only bone—no fat should be wasted. The refuse 
from bones runs about 20 per cent in chops. The waste in 
poultry is large, running from 25 per cent in old fowls to 45 




540 31ACF AD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


per cent in broilers. Fish waste is considerable, varying from 
30 to 60 per cent on the whole fish as purchased. The fact that 
fish as shown in the shop have a cheaper price tag than meat 
does not indicate that the real price is lower. The waste of 
fruits and vegetables run from nothing for berries up to 50 
per cent for cantaloupe. Orange peels are about 30 per cent 
of the weight as purchased. Bananas have a waste of 35 per 
cent. In these cases the peels are thick and quite unedible, but 
in the case of fruits like apples and pears or vegetables like 
potatoes, the peel is very thin, and becomes a source of conse¬ 
quential waste only when we employ the clumsy system of 
removing the skin by cutting off part of the substance. A 
large amount of good food is thus wasted, including most of the 
valuable mineral elements. Baking potatoes “in the jackets’’ 
also means a loss (if the jackets are not eaten), since much of 
the meat of the potato sticks to the stiffened skin and is 
discarded. 

Potato skins are not bad eating, and serve the same dietetic 
purpose as wheat bran, the mineral elements being digested 
and the cellulose serving to give the bulk to the intestinal 
residue and preventing constipation. If you cannot accept this 
idea of eating the skins, you may adopt the plan of dropping 
the washed potatoes into a vessel of boiling water and allow 
them to remain ten minutes. Remove, rinse in cold water, and 
strip the thin skin as when potatoes are peeled after thorough 
cooking by boiling. The potatoes will still be practically raw 
and may be handled like raw peeled potatoes in further cooking. 
Best of all, such potatoes may be baked when they will crus't 
over with a delicious golden brown skin. Such baked potatoes 
are entirely eaten, avoiding the unsightly waste of baked 
potatoes as usually served. 

Buy a tireless cooker and use it. The fireless cooker saves 
fuel, it prevents heating up the kitchen, and it eliminates the 
worry from fear of food sticking and burning. The fireless 
cooker may be used for any food that is to be stewed, steamed 
or boiled. 




CHAPTER XXII 


ADAPTING THE DIET TO VARIOUS 
CONDITIONS. 

T HERE is no ideal or perfect diet for all people at all 
times. The fundamental laws of nutrition must be 
adapted to the varying conditions of life. In this chap¬ 
ter I will discuss these varying conditions, which may be con¬ 
sidered as normal variations, as distinct from the application of 
dietetic laws to actual ill-health and disease, which is considered 
at length in Volumes III and IV. 

These normal conditions are: season and climate, growth 
and age, sex, pregnancy and nursing, occupation and activity, 
stature and weight, the influence of diet on the activity of the 
bowels. Between some of the above-mentioned conditions 
there are certain interrelations. Thus the chief distinction 
between the ideal diet for man and woman is merely one of 
adapting the quantity to the difference in size and weight of 
the body. The chief reason for the modification of the diet 
with advancing age is that of decreasing muscular activity. 
The mother’s diet during pregnancy and nursing is a matter 
of adding to the normal diet of woman the essential dietary 
elements required for the rapid growth of the child that is 
being nourished from the mother. 

In the adaptation of the diet for these various conditions 
we will have to consider both quantity and quality. Obviously, 
the adaptation of the diet for variations in bodily size should be 
a quantitative one, while the distinction in the diet required 
for growth compared with that of adulthood is largely qualita¬ 
tive. The adaptation of the diet to muscular activity, and also 
to old age, is a matter of the quantitative change in the energy- 
producing content of the food and also a qualitative change in 
the diet due to the change in proportions of the energy yielding 
food and the other dietetic essentials. 

According to Season and Climate. —Many erroneous 
ideas commonly exist concerning the effect of climate and 

541 


542 


MACFAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


season upon diet. The heat radiated from the body must be 
furnished by food, and this would indicate that there should be 
an increase in the total food intake in cold weather. But in 
practice, cold weather results in our wearing more clothing, 
staying indoors, and decreasing our exercise. Hence, we often 
require practically no more food in winter, and sometimes less, 
than in summer. 

People who eat all they can in winter but worry over their 
summer diet have this justification for their pains—the summer 
diet, because of the'greater danger of food contamination and 
decay, results in more frequent cases of ptomaine poisoning, 
indigestion and bowel troubles, and the death rate of children 
who are more subject to such troubles is greater in summer. 
The man who lightens his summer diet only is usually over¬ 
eating in winter, and it may not be without significance that 
the greatest death rate of adults is toward the end of the winter 
season, after people have been sitting indoors and eating “heavy 
foods.” 

There is some justification for cutting down the meat con¬ 
sumption in summer, as the excessive eating of protein (lean 
meats) results in an increase in body temperature. There is no 
reason for cutting down on the so-called heating foods—fats, 
starches and sugars—merely because it is summer. These foods 
eaten in excess result not so much in an increase of body tem¬ 
perature, but an increase of body fatness. If a man is over¬ 
fat at any time of the year he is uncomfortable and inefficient. 
The fat is more uncomfortable in the summer, and there is more 
reason for him to reduce, but that is no excuse for his being fat 
in the winter—it is both cheaper and more comfortable to buy 
an overcoat than to grow one of blubber like a walrus. 

The common, and in general the correct, belief is that the 
diet for growth must contain a high proportion of the protein 
foods. This belief originated from the chemical knowledge 
that the living body, with the exception of fatty tissue, is chiefly 
composed of protein, and hence, if rapid growth is to be ex¬ 
pected, ample protein-building material should be supplied. 
This chemical reasoning had long been substantiated by the 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


543 


observations that when young animals were supplied high 
protein diet growth was stimulated thereby. 

The general truth of the necessity of protein for growth 
cannot be disputed either from the theoretical reasoning or 
practical observation. There are, however, certain dangers in 
the application of this general principle to the feeding of the 
children. In the first place, the old school of dietetic teachings 
laid undue emphasis on the fact that meat was the protein food 
par excellence. In all old-fashioned food classifications the 
protein foods were designated as “tissue forming” or “grow¬ 
ing” food, and lean meat, containing little else than protein and 
water, was therefore ranked highest in such classification. 
Common-sense observations led to the recognition of milk and 
eggs as more wholesome and digestible protein food for chil¬ 
dren, and hence these more desirable articles of diet have 
generally held a high and worthy place in the feeding of 
children. 

But even with this consideration, the danger of the old 
teaching lay in the fact that the typical diet of meat-eating 
people was unduly rich in protein, and if special efforts were 
made to increase the protein in the children’s diet above that 
of the parents, the result would be a far greater proportion of 
protein than the actual needs of growth demanded. 

The danger of error here may readily be understood by the 
consideration of the slower growth of the human young com¬ 
pared with that of the young of domestic animals. The calf 
reaches its full growth in two or three years, pigs and chickens 
in less than a year, while the child requires nearly twenty years 
for its growing period. Nor do we need to depend upon 
theoretical reasoning from the fact of the slower rate of growth 
to reach the conclusion that the child requires less protein than 
the rapidly growing young animal. The lesson is prepared 
for us in unmistakable form in the fact that the milk of the 
human mother contains but about one-half the proportion of 
protein that is present in the milk of a cow. This fact is well 
recognized in the custom of modifying cow’s milk for human 
infants. Such modification is accomplished by taking the top 




544 MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


portion of a bottle of milk, adding water and milk sugar. In 
this manner the percentage of protein from the cow’s milk is 
diluted, whereas the sugar content is increased, and the fat con¬ 
tent, because the creamier portion of the milk is taken, remains 
about the same. 

Composition of Mother's Milk. —The composition of 
mother’s milk is indeed the best standard for the diet of early 
childhood, and it is less rich in protein than is cow’s milk, and 
is decidedly less rich in protein than would be a diet of cow’s 
milk to which was added meat and eggs. On the other hand, it 
would not be safe to attempt to prescribe a diet for children 
merely by taking a proportion of protein as shown in mother’s 
milk and using this as a standard to select an ordinary diet of 
vegetables or a diet of vegetables and meat which would yield 
the same quantity of protein foods. A proportion of protein 
derived from vegetables and meat no greater than the propor¬ 
tion of highly efficient protein in mother’s milk which would 
likely prove inadequate because of the lower availability of the 
protein. 

The body is able to rid itself of food elements taken in 
excess of its needs, but it is wholly incapable of supplying 
elements that are deficient. Hence in childhood as in adult 
life when a mixed diet is used, the exact chemical content of 
which is unknown, it is essential that the food contain something 
in excess of the theoretical minimum needs of the body. The 
diet for childhood should therefore be moderately rich in pro¬ 
tein food, and these should be selected from those food groups 
which most nearly approach the highly efficient body-building 
protein supplied in the mother’s milk. As a source of protein 
for childhood we must therefore rank cow’s milk as that of 
first quality, and eggs as a second best choice. Beyond this we 
have little reason to consider the problem, because when these 
foods are used in moderate quantities the foods added to secure 
other elements of the diet will contribute such further protein 
as is required. 

But in the problem of feeding for growth protein is not the 
only essential consideration. The recent discoveries of science 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


545 


have thoroughly established the fact that deficient diets, which 
have too often resulted in stunted and weakly children, are not 
to be explained so much by a lack of protein as by deficiencies 
in mineral salts and the vitamines. The highly beneficial results 
of the use of milk in feeding children is to be explained by the 
presence in a highly assimilable form of these dietetic essentials. 
Calcium (lime) and phosphorus are the mineral elements most 
likely to be deficient. These are supplied most abundantly by 
milk. Eggs alone are not so complete a diet for growth because 
of the fact that we do not eat the egg shell from which the grow¬ 
ing chick secures a large portion of its calcium. Eggs cannot 
therefore be considered so complete a growing food as milk, 
although they are far superior to meat or vegetables as a source 
of protein. 

By the supplying of a liberal proportion of milk to the diet 
of childhood the chief danger of mal-nutrition is avoided. As 
the quantity of milk is decreased and the proportion of energy 
derived from other food is increased, care should be taken that 
mineral salts and vitamines are supplied in like proportions. 
This factor of safety can be assured by the free use of green 
vegetables, fruits and entire grain products. 

The chief dietetic danger of childhood conies from the 
child’s fondness for confections, cakes and pastries made of 
white flour, sugar, starch, glucose and fats. Such denatured 
or super-refined foods are practically useless for supplying the 
elements of growth. Theoretically they are not harmful in 
small quantities, but in practice their use cloys the child’s appe¬ 
tite so that he under-eats in foods containing mineral salts and 
vitamine, and there is grave danger that the proportion of these 
highly important dietetic essentials will therefore be decreased 
below the line of safety. 

The first essential of the growing-diet of childhood is the 
inclusion of milk and eggs for the supply of the most efficient 
growing protein and for the certainty of a supply of minerals 
and vitamines in their safest and most utilizable form. The 
second most essential consideration is to include green vegeta¬ 
bles and fruits so that as the proportion of milk is decreased 

Vol. 1—34 






546 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


dietetic habits may be formed which will continue the supply 
of these essentials. Third, the inclusion of whole-wheat 
bread and whole grain cereal products, such as oatmeal and 
unpolished rice, in preference to white flour, polished rice and 
denatured patent cereal foods. Fourth, if the child is raised at 
a meat-eating table it should be taught to eat meat in very 
moderate quantities and not be allowed to make it the main dish 
of the meal. Fifth, the use of sugar and confections should be 
discouraged and the natural taste for sweets should be given a 
proper expression by permitting a free use of raisins, dates, 
oranges and other fruits that yield natural sugar in combina¬ 
tion with mineral elements in an undenatured form. 

Diet According to Age. —Taking first the question of 
quantity, we find that the amount of food should be greater, 
considering the size of the body, in youth and slowly decrease 
with age. The new-born infant eats far more per pound of 
body weight than the full-grown man. This is true, first, 
because of the more rapid growth, second because of the radia¬ 
tion of heat relatively greater from the smaller body, and third 
because the general rate of organic activity is greater. The 
heart-beat and the breathing is faster in the child, and its 
activities are more constant. Small animals eat more per pound 
body weight than do the larger species. 

' The following table gives for boys a diet standard esti¬ 
mated on the basis of a proper amount of healthful exercise, but 
no constant heavy labor. The standard should be the same for 
girls until about the tenth year, reaching that of the mature 
woman (1.2 wheat pounds) at the age of 15. 


Dietary Standard For Boys 


AGE 

WHEAT POUNDS 

AGE 

WHEAT POUNDS 


DAILY 


DAILY 

1 

.5 

12 

1.1 

2 

.6 

13 

1.2 

4 

.7 

14 

1.3 

6 

.8 

15 

1.4 

8 

.9 

16 

1.5 

10 

1.0 







OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


547 


After physical maturity the quantity of food needed is fairly 
constant throughout adult life and is much more influenced by 
activity than by age. As old age approaches the quantity of 
food required gradually decreases, due chiefly to cessation of 
activity and also in part due to the shrinkage of the quantity of 
muscular tissue. Of all the known rules for attaining long life 
that of an abstemious diet is conceded to be the most important. 
As age increases the dangers attending overeating become 
greater. The old man not only fails to take the vigorous ex¬ 
ercises of the younger, but he moves slowly, and all his bodily 
actions are slowed down and require less energy for their con¬ 
tinuance. At from fifty to sixty—according to the degree of 
activity—the diet may be cut down one-tenth of a wheat-pound. 
Further age and increasing feebleness should result in further 
cuts to 1.2, which is about as low as the diet should go for a man 
who is up and about. 1.0 wheat-pounds is about right for the 
bed-ridden invalid. 

Diet According to Occupation and Activity. —Muscu¬ 
lar activity, whether of work or of play, is the greatest factor in 
altering the food requirement. A man doing no active muscular 
work and taking only light exercises, requires less than one-half 
the amount of food that he would need if he were working to 
the limit of his muscular capacity. But such extreme muscular 
work is comparatively rare and called for in but few occupa¬ 
tions. 

A man at heavy labor can, without apparent harm, eat 
foods which would wreck the digestion of a man at light labor. 
If the lumber-jack eats from one to two pounds of meat per 
day, it is his work that makes possible such eating and not the 
eating of the meat that makes possible his work. What is 
good for a man at moderate labor is still good for a man at 
heavy labor, but there are food elements that extra labor need 
not increase. The body requires practically no more protein, 
salts or vitamines, for heavy labor than for mere existence. 
Because cereal foods are cheaper, the manual laborer is for¬ 
tunate in that the demands of his work do not require an in¬ 
crease of protein as was formerly thought to be necessary. 




548 MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Extra muscular activity requires extra food for energy 
only, hence, cereals, sugar and fats are all that need to be 
added to a diet that already has enough of the other food 
elements to support normal life. In practice, in the poor 
man’s home, this means a heavier consumption of the cheapest 
dishes. But it is well to note that the laborer’s wife and chil¬ 
dren will need the same food proportions as other people, 
and hence the heavy worker with his workman’s appetite, 
should partake of the low cost dishes and indulge himself in 
the daintier dishes only with such appetite as is expected of a 
man at light labor. This withholding from the head of the 
household the better tasting food may seem a difficult business 
in some instances, yet if we will stop to think it is what is 
commonly done in every household where bread and potatoes 
are piled on the table unlimited, and desserts served in limited 
and equal portions to all. The foods that are most needed to 
round out the diet made of the low cost cereal and fat dishes 
will be fruits, milk, eggs, and vegetables, especially the green 
salads. If the family is hard pressed for cash it may be well if 
more of these dishes are served to wife and children at the noon 
or afternoon lunch when the father is at work. Usually father 
won’t mind it a bit, for he wants something “filling.” 

Because muscular activity stimulates the appetite there is 
often a tendency to allow a small increase in muscular work 
to result in too large an increase in food consumption. There 
are very few occupations in which the food intake should ex¬ 
ceed 2. wheat-pounds. The following estimates will serve as 
a guide for the increasing of the diet with labor. It is, of 
course, only approximate, as the amount of muscular labor in 
any occupation varies widely. 

A man of average size and weight when resting in bed (as 
from a broken leg) will require 1.1 wheat-pounds. 

When on his feet and up and about the house taking ab¬ 
solutely no other exercise, 1.3 wheat-pounds. 

When engaged in office work taking exercise equivalent to 
walking two miles a day, 1.5 wheat-pounds. 

Indoor clerks on feet all day, 1.6 wheat-pounds. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


549 


Light muscular labor, as feeding printing press, 1.7 wheat- 
pounds. 

Chauffeurs, teamsters, 1.8 wheat-pounds. 

Carpenters, plumbers, expressmen, 2.0 wheat-pounds. 

Walking all day as in following a plow, 2.2. 

When engaged in harvest work, as shocking grain or pitch¬ 
ing hay, including both continual working together with con¬ 
stant stooping or lifting for long hours, 2.5 wheat-pounds. 

When lumbering, ice harvesting or engaged in similar ex¬ 
cessively hard labor outdoors in cold weather, 2.8 wheat- 
pounds. 

Six-day bicycle races and other deliberate efforts to utilize 
man’s muscular abilities to the limit, 3. to 3.5 wheat-pounds. 

It is to be borne in mind that such feats as six-day bicycle 
races usually result in the consumption of stored bodily fat. 
It is very difficult for the body to digest and assimilate such 
quantities of food even though the muscular consumption for 
the time demands it. In England, an experiment was once 
made to see how much men could eat and what would be the 
result of such deliberate over-eating. Healthy men taking 
out-door exercise were used as subjects and were able to stuff 
themselves with from 3. to 3.6 wheat-pounds per day. In 
every case they broke down in a few weeks with digestive dis¬ 
orders, and usually lost heavily in weight before recovery. 

Food for Mental Activity. —To find a special diet for 
brain workers has long been one of the aims of science. This 
search has reached no definite goal. It has long been known 
that the brain cannot work efficiently if the general health is in 
any way depleted. But scientists have not been able to find any 
particular food that would make a man think. 

A proper understanding of the physiology of thinking in¬ 
dicates the futility of a search for brain food. Muscular work 
converts matter into energy, but mental work consumes no ap¬ 
preciable quantity of matter. As thinking consumes nothing, 
there is no food that can create thought. This brain tissue is 
removed but slowly and its composition cannot be materially 
changed by particular foods. 




550 


MACF AD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Experiments in fasting seem to show that the physiological 
chemists have yet much to learn, for fasting thoroughly dem¬ 
onstrates that the power to perform intellectual labor not only 
does not depend upon the amount of food eaten, but within 
certain bounds, is dependent upon the ability of man to do 
without food . In other words, the longer he fasts within cer¬ 
tain bounds, the greater becomes his intellectual power and the 
clearer his intellectual vision. Yet it is self-evident that if this 
idea is carried to the extreme and the man fasts to the point 
of physical exhaustion he is then unable to utilize his power of 
thought to any practical purpose. Hence, the “golden mean” 
must be observed. A sufficient quantity of food should be 
taken to maintain physical vigor at its highest degree of effi¬ 
ciency without over-loading the body in the slightest, and at 
the same time to get rid of unnecessary and undigested foods. 
Experience, then, demonstrates that the brain and nerves, 
when the proper degree of rest is given them, will recuperate 
themselves from the stores found in abundance in a healthy 
body, and will thus keep the organs of the mind in a condition 
fit for the highest intellectual manifestations. 

While there is no particular food that can be eaten to aid 
the working of the brain, there are very many non-food ma¬ 
terials that may be taken to injure its functions. Alcohol is a 
brain poison, the action of which is obvious. Nicotine, caf¬ 
feine, and the various habit forming drugs also affect the 
brain. Any dietetic error that results in auto-intoxication 
destroys mental efficiency. The mere eating of excessive food 
produces a condition of the blood which results in dullness and 
drowsiness. Very many ways of eating will prevent us from 
thinking, and chief among these is plain gluttony. 

Comparative Dietetic Needs of Men and Women.— 
Except in child-bearing or nursing periods the chief distinction 
of woman’s diet compared with man’s is merely that one due 
to her lesser physical stature. Hence the proportionate dif¬ 
ferences would only apply in comparing a particular man and 
woman whose difference in size are relatively the same as the 
average differences of the sexes. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


551 


The dietetic requirements of women are usually placed at 
four-fifths those of men. If woman was engaged in as great 
a physical activity as man this would be a correct estimate. 
However, woman’s smaller size and her quieter ways, together 
combine to make her food requirements relatively small, and 
in many families where the husband works in active labor the 
wife might overeat and the husband undereat, when she was 
not consuming more than half as much food as he. This is no 
argument to deprive woman of her fair share of food, for in 
practice, its application will result usually in restoring her to 
health, as woman suffers more frequently than man from in¬ 
digestion or overweight, due to a combination of heavy eating 
with light muscular activities. 

Woman’s work may be very wearisome, literally the back¬ 
breaking sort, but the maintenance of an uncomfortable posi¬ 
tion or exhaustion from working in a hot and humid kitchen is 
not the sort of work that requires a heavy intake of food. 

Woman’s weight averages 83 per cent, of that of man, but 
her food requirements are not as much in comparison, because 
of the fact that woman’s muscular system is not 83 percent 
that of man’s. If it were, she would truly be more muscular 
for her size than man. The average woman carries more fatty 
tissue than man as shown by comparison of their statures. The 
weight of a body is as the cube of the dimensions and so figured 
woman’s ideal weight should be only 77 per cent, of man’s. 

Under average conditions there is also a qualitative dietetic 
difference indicated for the sexes due to the fact that the aver¬ 
age woman does carry more fatty tissue and that she does ex¬ 
ercise relatively less, hence she will need a somewhat larger 
portion of the body-building and vitality-yielding elements of 
food and a comparatively smaller portion of the heat and 
energy supplying food elements. Her diet should therefore 
be more like that of the child when this is contrasted with that 
of the adult and particularly that of the hard-working man. 
If a woman is over-weight or especially inactive this difference 
should be increased, but where the weight is excessive the diet 
should conform more nearly to that recommended for the re- 




552 MACF AD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


duction of obesity, which is distinguished from that of the best 
growing diet of childhood by a lesser proportion of the grow¬ 
ing protein derived from milk and eggs. 

Although truly gluttonous appetites are more common 
among men than among women, there is probably a larger 
proportion of women who overeat than of men. This fact can 
be explained by the corresponding fact that a larger proportion 
of women are under-exercised. It may also be due to habits 
of serving food in uniform portions which particularly applies 
in case of dining in public restaurants. A woman of average 
size and activity who eats the same quantity of foods as the 
average man will in nine cases out of ten be over-eating. As 
it is often impractical, particularly in dining out, to have food 
portions served to individual needs, a woman will do well to 
omit some items from a dinner as served to the heartier eating 
man. Certainly such a course is in better taste than the habit 
of ordering the full service of food and leaving a portion un¬ 
eaten. The plan of omitting some dishes from a full dinner 
also gives the intelligent woman a chance to exercise some 
selection in her food without the necessity of appearing unduly 
finicky or cranky. The items which she should omit from the 
conventional meal would ordinarily be those dishes richest in 
carbohydrates and fats, and this first would apply particularly 
in the case of the woman who is inclined to carry more weight 
than the laws of health and beauty demand. It should be noted 
here that all cases of over-eating do not result in overweight 
but with some individuals may cause indigestion and actually 
result in underweight. In either case the thing to do is to 
eliminate the heavy starches, meats and rich sweets and 
pastries. 

For the Pregnant or Nursing Mother. —The diet for 
the mother who must eat for her child as well as for herself 
is essentially a diet for growth. The ideal diet for the woman 
not doing heavy physical labor is closely akin to the ideal diet 
for the child, hence the primary need for the mother and the 
secondary needs for the growth of the child may be combined 
harmoniously. The additional amount of food that must be 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


553 


eaten to provide for the growth of the child is relatively small 
as the child’s growth is comparatively slow. During the nurs- 
ing period the total demands will be somewhat greater than 
during pregnancy. 

But while the additional amount of food which the child 
carrying or child nursing mother will require is not great, it 
is highly important that the diet be of the finest growing quality 
and amply and richly supplied with high growth protein and 
with mineral salts and vitamines. Milk, butter and eggs 
should enter in reasonable proportions into the mother’s diet. 
Fruits and leafy vegetables are highly desirable. Sweets, pref¬ 
erably in the form of fruits and honey, are a desirable source, 
not only for supplying energy to the mother during pregnancy 
and nursing, but as a source of milk sugar. 

The healthy and well-fleshed adult carries a reserve store 
of many of the food elements which will bridge over periods 
of dietetic deficiencies. But if the mother’s diet is deficient the 
growth of the child will make the first demands on the lacking 
elements and the mother’s vitality will suffer accordingly. If 
the deficiency is not remedied, both the mother and child will 
suffer, but the mother will have more opportunity to recover, 
whereas the child’s growth may be stunted or a weakness may 
result in the rapidly developing young life which cannot be so 
easily remedied at a later date. 

Starches may enter into the mother’s diet more largely than 
they would in the diet of the young child, as her digestive 
powers are better able to cope with them. The same is true of 
meat, although there is positively no advantage of meats over 
milk and eggs and if the latter are available in abundance there 
is no occasion for the mother’s becoming a heavy meat eater at 
this period, though less harm would result than from the feed¬ 
ing of meat to young children. 

After childbirth, if the mother is thin, and especially if 
she is doing heavy housework, her diet may approach that of 
the male standard in quantity, but if she has retained her 
plumpness, or when she regains it, there would be no occasion 
for a heavier diet than that maintaining normal bodily weight. 





554 MAC FA D DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Appetite may be more safely relied upon to indicate the 
quantity of food needed than to indicate the quality. This 
particularly applies to the modern civilized diet in which such 
natural instincts as man possesses are more or less baffled by 
habits of eating artificial food forms and mixtures. Scientific 
knowledge and intelligence are absolutely essential if modern 
civilized man would reach the maximum of efficiency in diet 
and this principle applies to the pregnant or nursing mother 
more especially than to other people at other times, because a 
deficient diet at this time is a source of greater danger. 

The young child, whether in the mother’s womb or nursing 
at her breast, is living its small life at a relatively more rapid 
rate than is the adult, and dietetic deficiency will therefore 
more quickly result in impairment of growth and vitality. 

When the purpose of the diet is to gain weight, the first 
thing to do is to determine whether one wants to gain muscular 
or fatty tissue. If the gain desired be muscular tissue, the 
only way to secure it is by exercising. Appetite will then 
usually urge one to eat sufficiently to supply all the energy 
this exercise involves, and the muscular tissue will be slowly 
built up by such exercise. 

The foods required for the increase of muscular tissue are 
the proteins, but the actual amount needed is small and will 
be supplied by any normal diet. There must also be a slight 
surplus of wheat pounds or the heavy exercise will result in a 
depletion of that small, but desirable, portion of body fat 
which every normal individual should carry. 

There may be a few instances, most notable in the case of 
thin women, where it is desirous, as a matter of appearance, to 
add a considerable amount of fatty tissue to the body. In these 
cases a reasonable surplus of food should be encouraged. Even 
to gain fat, it is often necessary to take exercise to stimulate 
appetite and increase the digestive and assimilative powers of 
the body. To gain weight, a proper balance must be struck 
between the exercise which will increase appetite and that 
which will burn up the material which might otherwise be 
deposited as fat. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


555 


In case of weakened digestion or poor appetite, it frequent¬ 
ly happens that those foods which the appetite most readily 
accepts are low in nutritive value. Personal experiments should 
then be tried with foods that are high in wheat-pounds, but 
which also seem acceptable to the appetite and the digestion. 
Fat meats are frequently indigestible and are rarely advisable 
in large quantities. In such cases, the substitutes may be found 
in the form of vegetable oils, milk, cream, butter and nuts. 

In case it is the starchy foods that are indigestible, the 
remedy may be in the larger use of fats, but this cannot be 
carried beyond a reasonable proportion, as fat should rarely 
f jrm more than one-fourth of the total food intake. Starches 
may be logically replaced by the natural sweets of fruit. Like¬ 
wise, the heavy cereal starches, breads, porridges, etc., may be 
replaced by the more diversified and usually more appetizing 
forms of carbohydrates found in vegetables. 

How to Reduce Weight. —The only scientific method of 
reducing the bodily weight is by lowering the food intake be¬ 
low the point of actual consumption in the muscle cells. A 
misleading notion in dietetics in the past has been the notion 
that some foods were fattening and others were .not. 

Fat people will frequently go to any trouble to avoid eating 
potatoes, or go without sugar in coffee, or avoid butter or some 
other few particular tabooed foods without making any effort 
to control the quantity of food as a whole. While it is true 
that the foods commonly avoided by those who wish to reduce 
are foods that yield heavily in nutriment and do make people 
fat, yet it gets one nowhere to avoid particular foods, if other 
foods are consumed that keep the total wheat-pounds up to 
the former figure. 

The use of exercise for the reduction of fat is valuable, 
but its direct effect is not as great as that of food reduction. 
Usually a fat man who has utterly neglected the care of the 
body is a man half-sick and generally run-down in all bodily 
activities. Exercise for him is exceedingly valuable, but not 
alone for the reduction of fat. Fat can be reduced by exercise 
alone and by food alone. By far the best program is that 




556 MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


which involves both methods, but the main reliance should be 
in the reduction of the food intake as measured in wheat- 
pounds. 

One great difficulty experienced in reduction of body weight 
comes from the sudden determination to reduce on the part 
of the person who previously made no effort to restrict the food 
or to take any systematic exercise. He then starts out taking 
a ten-mile walk, and at the same time resolves to “diet.” As 
he has always been in the habit of eating all his appetite de¬ 
manded, and as he comes home from his jaunt with the greatest 
appetite he ever had in his life, and the first honest one, there 
is an immediate conflict of purposes, and his resolutions fre¬ 
quently go to smash. 

This discouraging result may be avoided if a little common 
sense is used in planning. If one has been in the habit of taking 
any exercise at all, he will find it advisable to increase that 
exercise gradually without such strenuous efforts as will stimu¬ 
late his appetite. If exercise has not been among his habits, it 
will be better to first cut the diet, and wait until he has become 
accustomed to dietetic restriction, and to leaving the table a 
bit hungry, before he imposes upon himself the greater tempta¬ 
tion that will come from the increased appetite due to exercise. 
Indeed, he will find that after a few weeks of abstemious eating 
he will not consider the honest appetite earned by exercise as a 
behest which he must obey or perish. Having accustomed him¬ 
self to allowing his brain and not his palate to dictate his bill-of- 
fare, the appetite from exercise may be mastered without its 
overwhelming him. 

Many books written on the reduction of fat have been in¬ 
nocently or intentionally deceptive. The authors have inferred 
that bodily weight could be reduced while still enjoying all the 
pleasures of eating. This is true if we confine the pleasures of 
eating to the genuine pleasures that come from the true epicu¬ 
rean test that is a part of the physical culture system of health 
building. But if the inference is that the fat man can continue 
to indulge his gluttonous appetite for conventional cookery, 
washed down with conventional liquors, then he is doomed to 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


557 


disappointment, and selling him a book on fat reduction is 
taking money under false pretenses. If the fat man will not 
give up his pleasures of gourmandizing, let him be fat. It is 
Nature’s penalty, and there is no way to remove the effect with¬ 
out removing the cause. 

The practical problem of the selection of the diet for 
reduction is in finding a diet that will not make the subject 
suffer too severely from the pangs of hunger. A little hunger 
is a good and wholesome thing, but the fat man is of an in¬ 
dulgent type, and rarely has the courage, at least in the first 
stages of his experiment, to severely deny himself. He should 
not be judged too harshly for this weakness, as the very fact 
that he is fat would indicate that he has been long in the habit 
of indulging in food and there may be an abnormal craving 
in the stomach that will make the partial fast of the reducing 
diet more severe upon him than it would be upon a man whose 
appetite had been trained to restraint. 

The foods selected for reduction should therefore be those 
which supply all possible elements without a high wheat-pound 
value. Thus, if one attempted to consume lettuce to the ex¬ 
tent required to supply 1.5 wheat-pounds, it would take 22 
pounds of that excellent food to supply the nutrition. The 
very idea of eating 22 pounds of lettuce would stagger even 
a fat man’s appetite, and there would therefore be little danger 
of remaining fat on such a diet. Of course, it is not practical 
to recommend a diet of any single one of these low nutrition 
foods, but the diet can partake more largely of foods of this 
sort. Bulky vegetables of all sorts are excellent to give a sense 
of fullness. This includes the salad vegetables, which are taken 
raw, as well as all cooked vegetables, and does not need to ex¬ 
clude potatoes, which are composed of starch in about the same 
proportion as are most boiled cereals. In serving green vege¬ 
tables, either raw or cooked, they should be dressed with lemon 
juice, not oil. One may destroy the reducing tendency of the 
diet by addition of oil. A green salad dressed with oil may be 
more fattening than a similar sized dish of potatoes. Fresh 
fruits have an effect similar to that of bulky vegetables. 




558 


MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Mastication Relieves Hunger. —The act of mastication 
and the actual presence of a residue in the intestines, both serve 
to alleviate hunger. The usefulness of fruits for this purpose 
may be lost entirely if sugar is used. Excessively sour fruits 
like rhubarb and cranberries, require so much sugar that they 
become nearly as fattening as porridges. Sugar is considered 
to be a fat producer, and while it is no more so than starches, 
and decidedly less than fat, it is to be guarded against for the 
reason that it requires absolutely no mastication, is absorbed 
quickly, and leaves no bulk in the intestines, and hence it is 
very easy to add quantities of it to the diet without becoming 
aware that the diet has increased. 

The third group of foods which should be called upon for 
reducing the diet are those which from habit are taken in small 
quantities. For this reason, bacon might well be put on the 
list of fat reducing foods. If by habit one eats a pound of fish 
at a meal, and this is fried in oil, he will consume a larger 
number of wheat-pounds than if the meat of the meal be bacon, 
which is usually served and eaten in small quantities. When 
the cook or housewife is planning a diet for one who wishes to 
reduce, a great deal of cleverness can be exercised in cooking 
and serving. Small portions should be served; bread may be 
cut in extra thin slices, and other means used to make a man 
feel that he has had his dinner without his really having con¬ 
sumed a large quantity of food. 

The last, and perhaps the best method of all for aiding in 
this general effect of satisfying the appetite with less food, is 
increased mastication. The beneficial results achieved by 
Fletcherism have been largely due to the lessening quantity of 
food eaten. Less food was eaten because from habit the ap¬ 
petite became satisfied after a given amount of mastication. A 
similar effect is gained, both from an increased time required 
to eat and from the restoration of normal or true appetite as 
against that artificial appetite acquired from the high flavors 
and the mushy conditions of most conventional foods. 

To summarize the general plan for the diet for reduction, 
we should first select bulky foods, as green vegetables and 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


559 


fresh fruits; second, if meat is taken, use those meats that are 
habitually taken in small quantities; third, use foods that re¬ 
quire chewing, such as very hard crackers and breads. All these 
foods should be eaten slowly and swallowed without the aid of 
liquids. 

The rate of weight reduction will depend upon the number 
of wheat-pounds burned in the body and those taken in the 
diet. If the amount of exercise is sufficient to consume 1.5 
wheat-pounds and if but 1. wheat-pound is eaten, the subject 
will obviously lose weight at the rate of .5 wheat-pounds of 
nutrition per day. If this loss is to come from actual body fat, 
it means a loss of about one-fourth of a pound per day. 

If one fasts completely, the loss will be about three-fourths 
of a pound per day. When one begins to reduce his diet, there 
will be a much greater loss for the first few days, due to the 
emptying out of the digestive tract and the reduction of the 
body fluids which excessive eating increases. The rate of re¬ 
duction aimed at is a matter of individual choice. From one- 
quarter to one-half a pound per day is entirely practical and 
means that the diet consumed should be from one-half to three- 
fourths of a normal diet. 

Those who are reducing, or for any other purpose make a 
definite effort to decrease the diet, should guard against ac¬ 
cessory food items, the chief of which are candy, nuts, ice 
cream, and soda fountain concoctions. The chief harm of eat¬ 
ing between meals is that it usually leads to overeating. 
Especially in the case of candy, the number of wheat-pounds 
adds up quite rapidly. Candy is practically pure sugar with 
very little water, and is from three to ten times more filling, 
pound for pound, than porridges, vegetables and fruits. 

The use of alcoholic liquors involves a very different ques¬ 
tion. Many serious arguments have been waged over the food 
value of alcohol. Beer does contain considerable non-alcoholic 
food material. It has been assumed that the fact that beer had 
a food value should be universally interpreted as a reason for 
the approval of beer. In reality, it is a reason for its condem¬ 
nation. In the use of beer, the nutriment added to a diet 




560 MACF AD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


already ample may prove a source of evil only secondary to the 
harm done by the alcohol itself. The same thing may be said 
of certain sugary soda fountain drinks. Many of these are 
directly injurious because of harmful ingredients, but as they 
are taken in addition to the regular meals, they add fuel to the 
flames, though we rarely think of these food accessories as be¬ 
ing the cause of our trouble. 

The best way to fatten a chicken or pig is to get it to nibble 
and eat continuously. Beer saloons, candy stores and soda 
fountains will be a beneficent institution only when human ef¬ 
ficiency is to be determined along the same lines as the hog 
farm. 

In the problem of dieting for reduction, valuable suggestion 
may be derived from the teachings of modern efficiency. 
Whether it is a question of a workman in a machine shop or a 
man thinking out a big deal on the stock exchange, a funda¬ 
mental rule of personal efficiency is to plan out and decide 
exactly what you are going to do in advance of the actual doing. 
A man who has planned to do a definite thing in a definite way 
and to quit when he is finished will invariably make a cleaner 
job of it than a man who goes at it blindly. 

To apply this principle to dieting, one should discard the 
old idea of eating till one is filled, and decide either before one 
sits down to dinner or after one sees the bill-of-fare, just what 
and how much he is going to eat. This definite planning in 
advance of a fixed program of action always aids in the carry¬ 
ing out of that action. It develops will power and will power 
is nothing more than the ability to think out a line of action 
and then do it without hesitation and wavering. 

A prominent New York business man who succeeded in 
reducing his own waist line very materially, advocates standing 
up to eat. Inasmuch as it makes the meal less a matter of 
leisure and rest, it discourages the habit of eating until satis¬ 
fied. This should be well worth trying by those who find dif¬ 
ficulty in limiting their food intake. So great is the belief of 
the gentleman in question in the efficiency of a restricted diet 
that he made a rule in his business that his buyers should not 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


561 


close any deal after one o’clock. He made a second rule that 
they should not lunch before one. This plan effectively side¬ 
stepped the usual custom of the salesman inviting the buyer out 
to dinner and filling him up with good things and good cheer 
until, with a full belly and a sleepy head, he became exceedingly 
acquiescent to his host and agreed to take the goods at the other 
man’s price. 

“A full round belly with capon lined” means weakness, 
dullness, inefficiency and failure. 

Overweight Causes Disease and Death. —One of the 
most striking recent changes of opinion among medical men 
has been due to the discovery that the statistics of life insurance 
companies show that fat policy holders are very much poorer 
insurance risks than thin ones. The overweight policy holder 
is shorter lived and has a higher death rate at all ages than does 
the normal man, whereas at all ages after 30, the overweight 
man has a higher death rate than the underweight man. In old 
age, the underweight man actually has a lower death rate than 
the average so-called normal man, evidently due to the fact 
that a large proportion of old men are so fat as to bring up the 
average weight to a point that is greater than the ideal weight. 
Hence, among old men, those who have been classed as normal 
are really too fat. 

The diseases on next page seem to be fat man’s diseases. It 
is more logical to say that both the disease and the fatness are 
caused by the same error of over-eating and under-exercise. 
These figures are too striking to be ignored. That four times 
as many middle-aged fat men should die of heart disease as 
thin men is a pretty obvious indication that “fat, hale and 
hearty” is a lying phrase. 

Evidently, people who are fat are not hale and hearty, and 
people who are hale and hearty are not fat. This great fallacy 
which such popular phrases express is based upon two lines of 
false reasoning: First, the notion that because food is essen¬ 
tial to life and because it is good for man to eat, that it is good 
to overeat and gain the resulting fat; second, because a man 
who is actually sick and nigh unto death is reduced to skin 

Vol. 1—35 J ® 




562 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


and bones, the suggested remedy, to the simple mind, is to go 
to the other extreme and be fat. 

RATIO OF DEATHS OF MEN 50 POUNDS OR MORE OVER WEIGHT AND 
25 POUNDS OR MORE UNDER WEIGHT, THE NORMAL DEATH 
RATE IN EACH CASE BEING EXPRESSED AS 100. 


Age when insured. 15 to 29 30 to 44 45 and up . 

Over Under Over Under Over Under 

weight weight weight weight weight weight 

Typhoid . 233 79 129 89 121 108 

Diabetis . 250 117 492 42 485 21 

Apoplexy . 260 70 279 58 188 53 

Heart disease . 350 107 295 72 197 64 

Appendicitis . 56 81 157 93 195 63 

Cirrhosis of liver. 433 33 380 30 203 36 

Bright’s disease .. 331 84 330 61 209 54 


Total deaths from all causes... 115 121 163 104 133 88 

In some instances, there seems to be a bit of truth in this 
last reasoning, so false in the main. Thus in the case of tu¬ 
berculosis, fat men do not die, but this does not prove that a 
person with a tendency to tuberculosis may prevent the disease 
by fattening himself like a corn-fed hog. A more likely ex¬ 
planation of the low death rate from tuberculosis among fat 
men is that the possession of fat is an indication of ample 
digestive and assimilative powers, whereas tuberculosis gets a 
foothold only where the digestive and assimilative powers are 
deficient. Thus fatness and freedom from tuberculosis may 
come from the same cause—good digestion; but long life is due 
due to a good digestion used and not abused. 

Why Bran is Needed.— Constipation as a disease is fully 
discussed in Volume IV. The foods recommended for the cure 
are those that have the largest proportion of cellulose of in¬ 
digestible fiber. Chief among these is wheat bran. The effect 
of bran is similar whether it be eaten as whole wheat, whole 
wheat bread or taken separately as bran. The folly of separa¬ 
ting the bran from the flour and again recombining them in the 
diet is obvious. Neither the flour or the bran are as palatable 
when eaten separately as when eaten together in their natural 
proportions. 

If the diet contains a normal proportion of wheat and all of 
this is eaten in its entirety as perhaps a cereal food or bread, the 
activity of the bowels will usually be well regulated. But where 
one is forced to eat white bread products, the error can be 












OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


563 


remedied by the separate use of bran. In such cases the bran 
may be mixed with other cereal dishes as oatmeal or it may 
simply be boiled and eaten with cream and sugar like other 
cereals. About three rounded tablespoonfuls a day will return 
to the diet the proportion of bran removed from the white bread 
ordinarily eaten. 

While the chief reason for using bran is that of increasing 
the bowel activity by the presence of the indigestible cellulose, 
the conclusion should not be reached that bran is all waste. It 
is rich in salts, vitamines and protein and also contains some 
digestible carbohydrate, in addition to the indigestible cellu¬ 
lose. In its composition bran resembles leafy foods which are 
also excellent for increasing the food bulk and intestinal 
activity. 

The word “indigestible” has two meanings, the one as ap¬ 
plied to the failure to digest foods that should be digested, the 
other is the failure to digest inert substances that add bulk to the 
diet, but are not affected by the digestive juices. Indigestion 
of fats or carbohydrates and particularly of proteins is harmful 
because when not digested such material decomposes and 
poisons the system. Cellulose, on the contrary, though it fails 
to digest, does not decompose, and its presence is a benefit as 
the increased bulk stimulates the peristaltic action of the bowels 
and so hastens the removal of all food residue or bodily waste 
excreted by way of the bowels, the retention of which is harm¬ 
ful. 

A general misconception is prevalent as to the source of the 
material passed from the bowel. With the exception of cellu¬ 
lose, very little of the feces, in the case of a healthy organism, 
is actual undigested food, but is composed of the residue of 
digestive juices and of material excreted from the body by 
way of the bowel. Man naturally lived on vegetable foods con¬ 
taining considerable cellulose. His intestines are made of suf¬ 
ficient size to accommodate this residue. If it be lacking they 
fail to function as rapidly as nature intended and the wastes 
are therefore retained over long. This same principle applies 
to all animals, in a varying degree, according to their diet. 




564 MACFAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


The conventional foods of civilization have been denatured 
by the removal of the cellular outer structures. This is harm¬ 
ful, both for chemical and mechanical reasons. A properly 
balanced diet of whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, milk 
and eggs would never cause constipation, although when the 
condition has become chronic some special cases will require 
more than a normal diet to effect a cure. On the other hand, 
after the system has, in a measure, become accustomed to 
functioning on a diet deficient in cellulose, the use of the 
quantity nature intended may, in some cases, bring about too 
rapid movement of the food through the intestine and there¬ 
fore result in incomplete digestion, even of the digestible food 
ingredients. In extreme cases, this becomes diarrhoea. 

Because of unnatural living habits in the past, certain in¬ 
dividuals will therefore find that special care is required to 
regulate the bowel activity. Personal trial is the only way to 
solve the individual problem. In most cases varying the 
amount of whole wheat bread used will prove a sufficient means 
of regulation. If the bread alone is not sufficient, bran may 
be used in addition. When ample leafy greens and fibrous 
fruits are eaten, less whole wheat or bran may suffice. If the 
use of all these products results in too rapid passage of the 
bowel content, then the more fibrous portions should be elimi¬ 
nated and a larger share of the salts and vitamines secured from 
dairy products. While the natural foods that are rich in salts 
and vitamines are usually also rich in fiber, there is enough 
distinction in the fiber content to permit of personal adapta¬ 
tion of the diet in regard to the cellulose without a return to 
the white flour and meat diet which is deficient in all of these 
essentials. 

Although the chief element in the regulation of bowel 
movement is the amount of cellulose or fiber, there is also some 
difference of effect in non-fibrous foods. Starches are more 
constipating than sugars, and proteids more constipating than 
fats. Milk when used in small quantities is constipating, but 
a full diet of milk is laxative. Sweet fruits are mild laxatives, 
both because of their cellulose content and because of the sugars. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


565 


Food oils are laxative if taken in excess because that portion 
not digested acts as a lubricant. Purified mineral oil is in no 
sense a food as it is wholly indigestible. Its action in prevent¬ 
ing constipation is like that of cellulose, in that it passes 
through the bowels without being digested. In addition it 
acts as a lubricant. Its use is to be recommended only in 
cases that fail to yield to food treatment. It is certainly to be 
chosen in preference to laxative drugs, the effect of which is to 
cause an artificial diarrhoea. 

Agar is a gelatinous form of cellulose made from seaweed. 
It is indigestible and acts like bran, but is smoother in texture. 
Where bran is found to be irritating, agar may be substituted, 
but it is more expensive and less easy to obtain. 




CHAPTER XXIII 


COOKING AND SERVING FOOD. 

T HE question, whether cooking has been an advantage to 
the world or not, is one upon which strong points may be 
made on both sides. 

The claim is made by the natural food dietarians that nat¬ 
ural foods possess special virtues because their vital principle 
and life-force are not destroyed by cooking. The scientists of 
the Department of Agriculture contend that biological ex¬ 
periment and physiological chemistry offer no data that war¬ 
rant this belief. They contend that experiments demonstrate 
that men fed on cooked cereals exhibit as good physiological 
condition as those who live upon the natural foods. On the 
other hand, they state that there is no reason to suppose that 
uncooked cereal foods are unwholesome if they are properly 
cleaned and free from bacteria. They also seem to accept 
without cavil the statement that they are especially useful in 
counteracting constipation on account of the large amount of 
indigestible crude fiber which they supply. 

Digestibility of Cooked and Uncooked Foods. —The 
following is a statement prepared by Milo Hastings on his in¬ 
vestigations at the Kansas State Agricultural College in 
1905-6 for the purpose of determining the digestibility of un¬ 
cooked vs. cooked foods, which investigations were the first of 
their kind ever undertaken in accordance with accepted scien¬ 
tific methods. 

“The common statement is that the walls of the cells 
containing the starch granules (in wheat, oats, corn, etc.) 
are composed of indigestible cellulose, and that in the process 
of cooking in hot water or steam the starch cells absorb water, 
expand, and rupture the cellulose envelopes, thus permitting 
the digestive juices to reach and act upon starch grains. As 
a matter of fact, the belief that there are cellulose walls around 
starch granules is a deduction from the general botanical 

566 _ _ 



OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


567 


fact that plant cells have cellulose walls. Now it happens 
that the cells of the interior of the grain being protected by 
the heavy outer covering of the kernel, have, in the process 
of evolution, lest their individual cell walls, so that the in¬ 
terior of the ripened grain kernel is simply a mass of starch 
granules. 

“The heat of moist cooking has no effect upon grain fats. 
The proteids are coagulated. The starch grains, where mois¬ 
ture is present, swell up and form a pasty or gelatinous mass. 
Between the digestion of raw and cooked grain, the follow¬ 
ing differences are readily noted: Raw grains, because of 
greater hardness and dryness, are naturally more thoroughly 
masticated. Cooked grain products may be masticated by 
force of will power or cultivated habit, as is the case with the 
followers of Fletcher, but the soft, mushy condition of cooked 
starch products does not readily call forth mastication, as 
natural foods which are in a similar condition do not require 
either grinding by the teeth or the influence of saliva in their 
digestion, and hence man has no instinct which leads him to 
masticate such pulpy foods.” 

The following experiments were carried out by the same 
writer on nutrition with a view of determining the digestive 
effects of the entire alimentary canal upon various cereals. 
The investigation was conducted along two lines. The first 
experiment was for the determination of the digestive effects 
upon individual grains by observing the remnants that passed 
from the alimentary canal. The second was a comparison of 
the dry weight and starch content of the excreta from diets 
which were identical, except that the grains in one case were 
cooked and in the other case taken raw. 

The subject, at the time of the experiment, was twenty- 
two years of age, weighed 140 pounds and was actively en¬ 
gaged in distance running. For eighteen months previous to 
this experiment, his diet had been chiefly of grains, fruits, and 
milk, eaten both cooked and uncooked. In the first experi¬ 
ment the method pursued was as follows: 

A full dinner was eaten at noon, consisting of milk, eggs 




568 


MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


and such fruits and ground grains as are readily and com¬ 
pletely digested. At 7 p. m., a meal of boiled rice and milk 
was taken, during which the grains to be experimented upon 
were swallowed whole. 

Findings in Experiments. —The examination of the di¬ 
gestive remnants was conducted according to the usual labora¬ 
tory methods and the findings were as follows: Commercial 
rice grains, pieces of raw potato and of almond kernels, and 
the halves of split beans and peas were all entirely digested. 
Pieces of walnut and hazelnut kernels, and of soy beans, were 
almost entirely digested. Whole wheat, Kaffir-corn, hulled 
barley, rye, beans, soy beans and corn were recovered in their 
entirety. In other words, when such seeds are not broken up 
by mastication, the indigestible hull protects the interior of the 
seed from the action of digestive juices. 

Far more interesting and significant results were achieved 
by sectioning, or cutting wheat and other grains in such a 
fashion as to expose the cut surface to the action of the diges¬ 
tive juices, showing the comparative digestion of various 
grains, and of the component parts of the grain. 

The cooking experiment was conducted by comparing the 
right and left side of split grains. The cooked halves were 
boiled for one hour, which softened the starch as much as would 
soaking several hours in the digestive juices of the body, yet 
the two sets of grains when compared, showed that about the 
same portion of starch had been eaten out by digestive juices. 

In all corn grains, whether raw or cooked, the starch por¬ 
tion, as is shown in the accompanying drawings, is much more 
rapidly digested than the germs or proteid in fatty portion of 
the grain. This is rather an amusing finding, considering the 
fact that the learned dietetists of the past have told us starch 
was the particular element of food which needed the applica¬ 
tion of heat to make it digestible. 

The study of the accompanying drawings, which show the 
average portion of starch digested out of the grain hulls, in¬ 
dicates, beyond all possibility of doubt, that, by this subject, 
raw starch is digested with rapidity and thoroughness. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


569 


The fact that unbroken 
raw grains are indigest¬ 
ible because of the actual 
cellulose covering, should 
not be confused with the 
claim that the starchy 
grains are indigestible 
when raw, because of the 
supposed cellulose cover¬ 
ing of the single botanical 
cell, which is scarcely vis¬ 
ible without a microscope. 
The digestion of the hulled rice grains, and the amount of 
starch eaten out of the grain hulls where the digestive juices 
could only attack from one side, clearly indicate that the grain 
particles, where mastication has been at all thorough, would be 
digested very readily indeed when they reach the proper 
division of the alimentary tract. 

The second experiment consisted of living during two sep¬ 
arate periods on diets exactly alike, save that the grains of the 
first week were boiled for two hours, while during the second 
week they were taken raw, with only such soaking, as was 
necessary to render mastication agreeable. The following is 
the weekly bill of fare for both periods: 



Drawing showing the relative digestibility of 
jncooked grains—Grains were cut on dotted line; 
unshaded portion was digested. 1—Barley; 2, 
—Rye; 3—Wheat; 4—Oats; 5-6—Corn. Points 
marked a in 5 and 6 show starchy portion, points 
marked b show germ. 


800 grams wheat 
700 
200 
200 
100 
100 


rice 

Kaffir-corn 
rolled oats 
rye 
corn 


700 grams sugar 
550 “ raisins 

150 “ dried apples 

7 lemons 
7 pints milk 
14 eggs 


The dried weights of the undigested residue were as follows: 

Cooked grain .298.6 grams 

Raw grain .256.5 


Chemical analysis of the two samples showed that the starch 
had been completely digested in either case, thus indicating 
that the lessened digestibility of the cooked diet was due to 
the indigestibility of cooked proteids. 

The complete digestion of all starch, in both the cooked 
and uncooked diets may seem to the reader not to be a con- 




















570 


MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


elusive argument upon either side of the question. These ex¬ 
periments do not indicate that cooking renders starch indiges¬ 
tible, but they do show that cooking is wholly unnecessary for 
starch digestion, and that the process of cooking only disturbs 
Nature’s plan without any corresponding benefits. The cooking 
of starch discourages mastication, increases fermentation (raw 
starch being practically unfermentable), and needlessly in¬ 
creases the bulk of the meal. 

As an explanation of the complete digestion of the two 
diets, it might be stated that the rations which represented 
in quantity the customary diet, contained but two-fifths of 
the proteid and three-fifths of the energy required by the 
Atwater, or government, dietary standards. Lest some think 
this diet be insufficient, it might be stated that the subject, 
during the period of the experiments, was entered in two 
distance runs, and finished a two mile road race in the time 
of eleven minutes and nine seconds. 

There can be no doubt that the great deterioration in the 
teeth of civilized races is largely attributable to the use of 
cooked food. We do not have enough hard substances to 
masticate. It seems to be the desire of the modern cook to 
eliminate everything from the dietary that must be masti¬ 
cated. Even the healthful crusts of bread are cut off, and 
if you try to get them at a first-class hotel you are looked 
upon as a “crank.” 

Predigested Food. —In the vain desire to discover a short 
cut to health, while continuing dietetic habits which are in direct 
opposition to natural laws, the predigested food idea had its 
birth. Its principle is altogether bad. Man should thoroughly 
masticate his food by chewing and thus develop by and in him¬ 
self the strength he needs. This is the natural and normal 
process; any deviation from it is attended with danger. As 
one authority states: “The predigestion fad has been one 
of the greatest fallacies that has ever been forced upon the 
public mind. That the juices of some fruits are already in 
the form of glucose, and can be immediately absorbed with¬ 
out any digestive process, does not prove that the mushy 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


571 


cooking and other forms of so-called predigestion are benefi¬ 
cial. As a matter of fact, the ‘predigested foods’ are not 
changed into the final products of digestion, but are composed 
of semi-soluble starch, gummy dextrine, and perhaps a little 
maltose. These substances only interfere with and disturb the 
normal process of digestion.” 

At variance with these statements we have the claims of 
some government food experts that the nutrients of the grain 
are found inside the starch-bearing and other cells, and the 
walls of these cells are made of crude fiber, on which the di¬ 
gestive juices have little effect. They say that unless the cell 
walls are broken down the nutrients cannot come under the 
influence of the digestive juices until the digestive organs have 
expended material and energy in trying to get at them. Crush¬ 
ing the grain in mills, and making it still finer by mastication, 
breaks many of the cell walls, and the action of the saliva and 
other digestive juices also disintegrates them more or less, 
but the heat of cooking accomplishes the object much more 
thoroughly. The invisible moisture in the cells expands under 
the action of heat and the cell walls burst. The water added 
in cooking also plays an important part in softening and 
rupturing the cells. Then, too, the cellulose itself may be 
changed by heat to more soluble forms. Heat also makes the 
starch in the cells at least partially soluble, especially when 
water is present. The solubility of the protein is probably, 
as a rule, somewhat lessened by cooking, especially at higher 
temperatures. Long, slow cooking at a moderate heat is 
therefore better, as it breaks down the crude fiber and changes 
the starch to soluble forms without materially decreasing the 
solubility of the protein. 

The experts contend that cereals differ considerably in the 
amount of cooking required to make them thoroughly digesti¬ 
ble, but not enough is definitely known on the subject to say 
exactly how long each kind should be cooked. In general, 
it is true that the more abundant and coarse the crude fiber 
the longer should be the cooking period. For this reason whole 
grains require longer cooking than partially crushed ones, 




572 MACFADDEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


and those containing the skin of the seed more than those from 
which it has been removed. For instance, whole corn kernels 
require longer cooking than fine hominy, and whole-wheat 
preparations more than flour gruel. Rice, which is remark¬ 
ably free from crude fiber, can be thoroughly cooked in a 
comparatively short time. 

In the case of the partially cooked cereals it is difficult to 
know how much of the necessary cooking has been done at 
the factory. It is safe to assume that they still require at least 
all the cooking suggested in the directions usually accompany¬ 
ing the package. Physicians sometimes complain that these 
preparations are indigestible and prefer old-fashioned home- 
cooked grains. Yet it is hard to see why the partially-cooked 
cereals, if they are properly re-cooked before serving, should 
not be just as digestible as those cooked at home, and they 
-certainly permit some economy in fuel and time. With all 
cereals it should be remembered that over-cooking is un¬ 
usual and harmless, while under-cooking is common and un¬ 
desirable. 

Principles in Cooking. —The general principles under¬ 
lying the cooking of vegetables have been well stated by the 
late Miss Maria Parloa in one of the government bulletins: 

“Vegetables are baked, roasted, fried, or boiled, are used for making a 
great variety of dishes, and are prepared for the table in other ways; but 
the most common method of cooking them is in boiling water. Steam¬ 
ing is not infrequently resorted to as a method of cooking vegetables and 
is, of course, similar in principle to boiling in water. 

“The simpler the methods of cooking and serving vegetables the better. 
A properly grown and well-cooked vegetable will be palatable and readily 
digestible. Badly cooked, water-soaked vegetables very generally cause di¬ 
gestive disturbances, which are often serious. Nearly every vegetable may be 
cooked so that with plain bread it may form a palatable course by itself, if 
it is desired to serve it in this manner. 

“All green vegetables, roots and tubers should be crisp and firm when 
put on to cook. If for any reason a vegetable has lost its firmness and crisp¬ 
ness, it should be soaked in very cold water until it becomes plump and crisp. 
With new vegetables this will be only a matter of minutes, while old roots 
and tubers often require many hours. All vegetables should be thoroughly 
cleaned just before being put on to cook. Vegetables that form in heads, such 
as cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts, should be soaked, heads turned 





Spaghetti and Mushrooms—Boil a pound of spaghetti in slightly salted water 
for fifteen minutes. Now put into a saucepan one-quarter pound of butter and 
two onions cut very fine, or better still, chopped, one pound of mushrooms sliced 
and simmer for five minutes. Meanwhile peel and cut into small pieces four 
fair-sized tomatoes, add, and let the mixture cook for fifteen minutes, pepper and 
salt to taste. Serve hot with grated Parmesan cheese. 



Rice In Cabbage Rolls.—Scald some large cabbage leaves tin they are Jimp 
and pliable. Boil some rice, add to it a few raisins, blanched almonds ^nd sugar 
to taste. Now take the leaves and put about a spoonful ofthe rice in each and roll 
up (see illustration), tucking the ends in carefully, so none of the 
out. Then take the little rolls and put into a saucepan with a lump of Gutter or 
some good olive oil and let simmer gently about twenty minutes till cabbage is 
done. 


410 










OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


573 


down, in salted cold water, to which a few spoonfuls of vinegar may be added. 
If there are any worms, or other forms of animal life in these vegetables 
they will crawl out. To secure the best results all vegetables except the dried 
legumes must be put in boiling water, and the water must be made to boil 
again as soon as possible after the vegetables have been added, and must be 
kept boiling until the cooking is finished. Herbaceous vegetables should boil 
rapidly all the time. With tubers, roots, cauliflower, etc., the ebullition should 
not be so violent as to break the vegetables. Green beans and peas when re¬ 
moved from the pod must also be cooked gently, i. e., just simmer. When the 
pods and all are used they are to be cooked rapidly, like the herbaceous vege¬ 
tables. 

“To secure the most appetizing and palatable dishes, only fresh, tender 
vegetables should be cooked. If, however, green beans, peas, etc., have 
grown until a little too old and it still seems best to gather them, a very 
small piece of baking soda added to the water in which they are boiled makes 
them more tender, it is commonly believed, and helps to retain the color. 
Too much soda injures the flavor and an excess must be carefully avoided. 
A little soda may also be used to advantage if the water is quite hard. Peas 
may be boiled for fifteen or twenty minutes in the water to which the soda 
has been added. Then add enough boiling water to cover them generously. 
Place over a hot fire and when they begin to boil draw back where the 
water will bubble gently. 

“During the cooking of all vegetables the cover must be drawn to one 
side of the stewpan to allow the volatile bodies liberated by the heat to pass 
off in the steam. All vegetables should be thoroughly cooked, but the cooking 
should stop while the vegetable is still firm. This, of course, does not apply 
to vegetables that are cooked in soups, purees (thick strained soups), etc. 
The best seasoning for most vegetables is salt and good butter. Vegetables 
that are blanched and then cooked with butter and other seasonings and very 
little moisture are more savory and nutritious than when all the cooking is 
done in a good deal of clear water.” 

To those who study the question of economy down to its 
smallest detail it is well to understand the losses that occur 
in cooking vegetables by different methods. In baking vegeta¬ 
bles there is little loss of material, except the water which is 
driven off by the heat. When vegetables are immersed in 
water, as in boiling, a greater or less loss of material is almost 
inevitable, the kind and amount of material extracted by the 
water depending upon such factors as the sort of water used, 
its temperature at the beginning and during the cooking period, 
the length of time the cooking is continued, and the condition 




574 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


of the vegetable, that is, whether pared, whole, or cut into 
small pieces. 

When potatoes are boiled in the jackets the loss of material 
is very trifling. When peeled and soaked for several hours 
before boiling the loss amounts to about fifty per cent of the 
nitrogenous matter, and forty per cent of the mineral matter 
present. When potatoes are peeled and placed at once in 
boiling water only about eight per cent of the proteid matter, 
and nineteen per cent of the mineral matter are extracted by 
the water. But little starch is removed from potatoes by the 
solvent action of water. But when peeled potatoes are boiled 
the amount of starch removed by abrasion is considerable— 
at times nearly thirty per cent of the total value of the potato. 
When carrots are cut into small pieces nearly thirty per cent 
of the total food material is lost. The sugar extracted is 
equivalent to nearly a pound to the bushel. There is a cor¬ 
responding loss also when cabbage is boiled, amounting to 
about one-third the total food material present. 

Another grave fault in cooking is the habit of boiling out 
all the flavor of vegetables in the process. When cooking 
vegetables use only sufficient water to avoid burning; never 
so much that it will be necessary to pour off a quantity when 
the food is ready to serve. With this water that is poured off, 
usually goes not only the best flavor of the food, but the vegeta¬ 
ble salts also. These saline elements that are a part of all 
vegetable life, are usually absorbed by, or dissolved in this 
liquid, which is generally poured off. The result is that a 
quantity of inorganic mineral salt must be added in a form 
which many hygienists believe cannot become a part of the 
body. 

A table on page 485 gives the proper time for cooking the 
vegetables commonly in use. 

What Overcooking Does. —Most foods are over-cooked. 
Too much heat deorganizes and destroys the nourishing, life- 
giving qualities of the food. No deorganized element is fit 
for use as food. This is a fact that cannot be learned too soon. 
Mineral substances cannot sustain life because thev are on- 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


575 


organized. The minerals needed by the body must be obtained 
from organized living substances. Only vegetable or animal 
life can sustain the life of man, because they only are organized. 
A chemist may mix the exact chemical elements in the same 
proportions contained in a grain of wheat, but it will be useless 
for food, although the wheat itself is a perfect food. In the 
one case it is organized and therefore the proper material for 
food; in the other case, unorganized and useless. 

Another objection to excessive cooking is that it so softens 
the food as to tempt the eater to swallow it without mastica¬ 
tion, and the injurious effects of this habit cannot be over¬ 
estimated. Any food that is bolted without being masticated 
will pass through the body without yielding the best of its 
nutrient elements for the benefit of the body* besides ferment¬ 
ing in the upper intestines and causing the many and serious 
troubles which have been already explained. 

When the abnormally trained appetite calls for those foods 
that “melt in the mouth,” the man and woman who eat such 
foods will find that they are apt to tempt into the habit of 
bolting. Teeth were made for use, and not only does the 
health of the teeth depend upon their proper use in the mastica¬ 
tion of hard foods, but the health of the body depends upon 
their discharging their functions in a proper and satisfactory 
manner. 

On the other hand, there is very little danger that one will 
be tempted to “bolt” uncooked foods. Such foods must be 
masticated, and will supply far more nutriment than will cook¬ 
ed foods swallowed without mastication. 

Many physical culturists are puzzled as to cooking with¬ 
out lard. Butter, cream or olive oil are all perfect substitutes 
for lard. There are thousands of people in the United States 
who have never used lard for cooking purposes, and they are as 
much surprised when informed that a large number of people 
do not know how to cook without it, as the latter class is to 
learn that there are those who never use it. 

Cotton-seed oil is often used, as it is cheaper than olive oil, 
and is certainly to be preferred to lard. A great deal is sold 
olive oil. 




576 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Fried foods are almost universally condemned by hygienic 
experts, yet wholesome foods, when properly fried, are as di¬ 
gestible as when cooked in other ways. Of course, batter-cakes 
and foods of that character are not fit for food, and even a dog 
would not eat them if made with white flour, as is usual. Bat¬ 
ter-cakes can, however, be made from graham or whole wheat 
flour, and such are quite satisfactory as food. 

High seasoning and elaborate combinations of foods in 
cooking are to be condemned. Every means should be adopted 
to bring out the natural flavor of the food, but it is not at all 
infrequent to find different articles of food so disguised by 
seasoning that their character is difficult to determine. Such 
a practice is, of course, injurious; for the appetite cannot be 
depended upon to indicate the proper quantity when benumbed 
by pepper and other stimulating seasoning. 

The importance of good cooking can hardly be over-esti¬ 
mated, yet it is usually considered of about the least impor¬ 
tance of anything in life; for it is often left to the ignorant 
and unskilled servants, who no doubt swell the income of 
medical men quite materially by the influence of their dishes 
upon the household. Therefore, no-girl should be allowed to 
marry until she thoroughly understands the art in all its 
branches, so that, whether she has to do the cooking in her 
own home or not, she will at least be able to direct all the 
operations of the kitchen in an intelligent manner. So long 
as people will eat cooked foods, these should be cooked accord¬ 
ing to the highest dietetic and practical knowledge, so that 
the maximum of palatability and digestible efficiency can be 
gained from them, with the minimum loss of food value. 

In the following pages a number of menus are given suited 
to diet, with recipes for the dishes named in them. There are 
three lists: One of Cooked Vegetarian Foods, one of Un¬ 
cooked Vegetarian Foods, and one of Mixed Foods, including 
Meats. 

The menus are primarily intended for the two-meals-a-day 
plan, but some of the dishes given for the two meals can be 
reserved or repeated for the third meal when three meals a 
day are eaten. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 577 


Time for Cooking Vegetables. 

Boiling. 

Asparagus—h liteen to twenty minutes. 

Beans (Lima)—One-half hour, slowly. 

Beans (string)—Two hours. 

Beans (dried)—Four to six hours, slowly. 

Beets (young)—Forty-five to sixty minutes. 

Beets (old)—Three to four hours. 

Cabbage—Thirty to forty-five minutes. 

Carrots (young)—Forty-five to sixty minutes. 
Carrots (old)—Two to four hours, slowly. 
Cauliflower—Thirty to forty-five minutes. 

Celery—Thirty minutes. 

Corn (green, fresh)—Eight to ten minutes. 
Macaroni—From twenty to forty minutes. 

Onions—Thirty to forty-five minutes. 

Oyster Plant—Thirty to sixty minutes. 

Parsnips (according to size and age)—One-half to 
one and one-half hours. 

Peas—Fifteen to twenty-five minutes. 

Split, dried peas—Four to six hours. 

Potatoes—Twenty to thirty minutes. 

Spinach—Twenty to thirty minutes. 

Squash—Twenty to thirty minutes. 

Tomatoes—Fifteen to twenty minutes. 

Turnips—One hour, boiled hard; four to five hours, 
if steamed slowly. 


Baking. 

Beans—Six to ten hours. 

Potatoes—Forty-five to sixty minutes. 

Macaroni—One-half to one hour. 

_______ _ 


Vol. 1—36 







578' MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Menus and Recipes—Cooked Vegetarian Foods. 



SUNDAY. 

Breakfast . 


Dinner. 

Grape Fruit 

Figs 

Nutmeato Roast with Egg Gravy 

Shreded Wheat with 

Cream 

Fruit Salad with French Dressing 

Cream of Celery 


Baked Irish Potatoes 

Graham Bread Creamery Butter 

Apple and Banana Sauce 

Cocoa 


Postum 


Cream of Celery.—Two stalks celery; two tablespoonfuls butter; two 
tablespoonfuls flour; one cup milk; a little parsley; salt to taste. Boil celery 
in water until tender. Drain off water and rub celery through sieve. Add 
milk. Stir butter and flour to a paste, and add this slowly to the heated milk 
and celery. Add the minced parsley and season with salt to taste. Cook 
until thick. Serve hot, with salted wafers. 

Fruit Salad. —One grape fruit; one orange; one bunch red California 
grapes; a few English walnuts. Cube the grape fruit and orange, being very 
careful to separate the pulp of the grape fruit from the skin, which is bitter. 
Cut the grapes in halves and take out the seeds. Chop the nuts quite fine. 
Add all together and serve with French dressing. 

Nutmeato Roast with Gravy. —(1) Nutmeatose. One cup nut but¬ 
ter; one cup sifted kidney beans; one and one-half cups water; two spoon¬ 
fuls cornstarch; one spoonful salt. Cook beans until tender and rub through 
sieve. To one cup of this sifted pulp add the other ingredients and mix well. 
Cook in sealed cans three to five hours. 

(2) Nutmeato Roast. One pint of toasted bread crumbs; one pint 
water; one-half pint strained tomatoes; one-half pound nutmeatose chopped 
fine; flavor with finely sifted sage. Mix well, and salt to taste. Bake in 
buttered, shallow pans until brown. Serve with egg gravy. 

(3) Egg Gravy. In one pint of water dissolve one level spoonful nut 
butter. Thicken with flour until thin gravy. Just before removing from 
stove, add one egg, well beaten. The white of egg may be used or omitted, 
as desired. 

Apple and Banana Sauce. —Cook apples as you would for ordinary 
apple sauce. When just about tender, add one or two sliced bananas (accord¬ 
ing to the amount of apples you use). Finish cooking until both are tender. 
Remove from heat and add sugar to taste. If apples are not too sour, you 
will not need to add sugar. 








Carrots and Peas. 

Take a carrot ami run 
through a chopper. 
Pour a few green peas 
over top. 

Cheese Relish. 

Take % lb. cheese and 
run it through a grind¬ 
er ; chop one small 
stalk of celery finely: 
mix two together and 
add one small green 
pepper and if too thick 
mix in a little cheese. 
Take two tablespoons- 


ful of butter and melt 
in a small dish: add 
one teaspoonful of 
whole wheat flour and 
stir to a paste ; now add 
a little grated onion 
and enough hot milk to 
make a thick cream 
sauce; then to the 
whole add a small 
amount of burnt sugar, 
prepared by putting a 
teaspoonful in a dish 
and letting it burn 
until brown. 


Cold Slaw. 

Chop one small cabbage 
finely. Dress with sour 
cream and lemon: if 
necessary, add a little 
salt. 


Vegetable Stew with 
Gravy. 

Take one onion, one 
potato, one carrot and 
one small turnip ; pare 
all and cut into small 


cubes or dice shape. 
Put onion in boiling 
pan and let boil for 
fifteen minutes (as it 
takes longer to cook 
them) ; then add the 
rest and let boil for 
fifteen minutes longer. 
Be sure not to let boil 
too much, or vegetables 
will become mushy. 
When done strain off 
water and set aside to 
steam with cover part 
way off pan. 



TOMATO AND CUCUMBER SALAD. 


ESCALLOPED CORN. 


FIG PUDDING 


Tomato and Cucumber Salad. 

Slice tw r o medium sized toma¬ 
toes into small pieces. Do like¬ 
wise with one medium sized 
cucumber: add together and 
dress with olive oil and lemon 
juice. If necessary salt to taste. 

Escalloped Corn. 

Cook until done, two ears of 
corn (canned corn may be used 
if fresh is not obtainable). 
Have ready a small baking dish 


well buttered ; then place in corn 
to depth of one-hair inch, salt 
and grate a little onion over it; 
then place over this whole wheat 
bread crumbs to the depth of 
one inch ; then another layer of 
corn and onion, salt and a small 
piece of butter; and last of all, 
on top another layer of bread 
crumbs ; pour over the whole a 
cup of milk ; place in oven and 
bake for fifteen minutes ; before 
baking grate a little cheese over 
the top. 


Fig Pudding. 

Stone six dates and put through 
chopper. Take six figs and do 
likewise. Grind *4 lb. mixed 
nuts; also half a loaf whole 
wheat bread. Mix all together 
and moisten with cream. A few 
raisins can be added with ad¬ 
vantage. Spread in a flat pan 
and cover pudding with sugar, 
and then on top of that shredded 
cocoanut. 



CREAMED SPINACH. 


Creamed Spinach. 

Boil in salt water two quarts of 
spinach for twenty minutes. 
when done squeeze out water 
and chop fine: put back > in 
saucepan and add a small piece 
of butter, 1 / cup of cream and 
the yolk of a hard boiled egg 
cut fine ; season with salt and a 
dash of pepper. When serving 
use the white of the egg as a 
garnish. 



GRAPENUT PUDDING. 

Grapenut Pudding. 

Let boil one cup of milk; pour 
into it V\ cup of Grape Nuts. 
When cool stir into it the yolk 
of one egg. and a tablespoonful 
of sugar and two drops of va¬ 
nilla extract; put' all in a small 
baking dish, and stir in the 
white of egg, well whipped; 
bake for fifteen minutes. Just 
before ready to serve pour over 
a sauce of one teaspoonful of 



TOMATO AND PINEAPPLE. 


melted butter, a tablespoonful 
of sugar, and half a teaspoon¬ 
ful of flour. Stir these to a 
creamy substance; pour over a 
little boiling water and flavor 
with a little lemon extract. 

Tomato and Pineapple. 

Take three tomatoes and slice 
into small pieces ; also one small 
pineapple and do likewise. Add 
together and make a dressing of 
equal parts of honey and lemon. 

579 





























































■ 
























































































































































































. 


























. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 581 


MONDAY. 


Breakfast. 

California Grapes 
\ 

Bananas Corn Flakes 

Cream of Tomato Soup 
Corn Bread Mixed Nuts 

Milk 


Dinner. 

Egg and Beet Salad with 
Oatmeal Wafers 

Baked Squash Creamed Potatoes 
Ripe Olives 
Prune Whip Cake 
Grape Juice 


Cream of Tomato Soup. —One can tomatoes; one and one-half pints 
milk; three tablespoonfuls butter; five tablespoonfuls (level) flour; celery 
salt; one onion; salt to taste. Heat tomatoes and run through sieve. Add 
the heated milk and minced onion to tomatoes and cook until onion is tender. 
Rub the flour and butter to a paste, and add slowly to the tomato mixture. 
Season with celery salt and salt to taste. Serve hot. 

Egg and Beet Salad. —Take three or four large beets, and cube them. 
Add three hard-cooked eggs, cubed. Add a cooked salad dressing, and serve 
very cold on little, yellow cabbage leaves. 

Creamed Potatoes. —Five large cooked potatoes; one cup milk; two 
tablespoonfuls butter; two tablespoonfuls flour; small quantity of parsley; 
salt to taste. Cube potatoes. Pour over them hot white sauce, which has 
been made from the milk, butter, and flour, as given above. Add minced 
parsley and salt to taste. Cook a few minutes and serve. 



TUESDAY. 

Breakfast. 


Dinner. 

Stewed Apricots 


Puree of Navy Beans 

Celery and Apple Salad 

Cream of Wheat 

Whole Wheat Gems 

Dates 

Honey 

Creamed Turnips 

Macaroni with Cheese 

Sliced Oranges and Pineapple 

Cocoa 


Postum 


Whole-Wheat Gems. —One quart whole-wheat flour; one quart water; 
one tablespoonful melted shortening; two tablespoonfuls sugar; two table¬ 
spoonfuls baking powder; pinch of salt. Beat thoroughly and put into hot, 
greased gem pans. Bake twenty minutes in hot oven. 

Puree of Navy Beans. —Three cups of cooked beans; one minced 
onion; two cups milk; three tablespoonfuls butter; one tablespoonful flour; 
pinch of red pepper; a little parsley; salt to taste. Proceed same as in mak¬ 
ing cream of tomato soup. 







582 MAC FAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


WEDNESDAY. 


Breakfast . 

Stewed Prunes Oranges 
Cracked Wheat with Cream 
Poached Eggs on Toast 
Postum 


Dinner . 

Banana and Nut Salad 
Buttered Parsnips 
Baked Sweet Potatoes 
Creamed Onions Corn Gems 
Apple Snow Date Coffee 


Corn Gems. —One egg; one and one-half cups milk; one-fourth cup 
sugar; one-half cup flour; one cup corn meal; two level teaspoonfuls baking 
powder. Beat first three ingredients together. Then mix corn meal and 
flour and add a little at a time, beating well for at least five minutes. Then 
add the stiffly beaten white of egg, and bake in gem pans in moderate oven. 

Apple Snow.— Cook four apples until very fine. Beat the white of one 
egg. Add apple sauce slowly, beating all the while. Add one tablespoon¬ 
ful grape jelly to this and beat until it is thoroughly mixed. Serve in little 
dishes, with chopped nuts sprinkled over the top. 


THURSDAY. 


Breakfast . 

Figs Oranges 

Corn Flakes with Cream 
Cream of Lima Beans 
Graham Bread Butter 

Cocoa 


Dinner. 

Cabbage Salad Nut Sandwiches 
Baked Asparagus with Cheese 
Creamed Cauliflower 
Stuffed Peppers 

Mixed Nuts Mock Cherries 
Lemonade 


Cabbage Salad.— Chop cabbage very fine. Add a few fresh grapes, and 
mix thoroughly with salad dressing. Serve on lettuce leaves, and garnish the 
top with nuts. 

Stuffed Peppers. —Mix two cups of sifted tomatoes with two-thirds 
cup of bread crumbs. Season with salt, minced onion, and minced parsley. 
Stuff the peppers and place in pan with a little water and butter. Bake until 
tender in medium oven. 

Mock Cherries. —Take equal parts of cranberries and raisins. Cover 
with water and cook until tender. Add sugar to taste. On account of the 
large quantity of natural sugar in the raisins, very little additional suger will 
be required. 






OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


583 


FRIDAY. 


Breakfast . 


Dinner. 


Grape Fruit Raisins 

Rice with Dates and Cream 
Sandwich Cream Toast 


Tomato Soup 


Egg Salad Escalloped Corn 
Baked Rice or Macaroni 


Creamery Butter 


Cocoa 


with Cheese 
Grape-Nuts Pudding 
Welch Grape Juice 


Rice with Dates. —Wash one-half cup rice. Cook in large quantity of 
salted water until nearly tender. Drain thoroughly and put into double 
boiler with one-half cup pitted dates. Finish cooking until tender. Serve 
with cream. 

Sandwich Cream Toast. —Select some well-browned triscuit, and if 
not crisp enough, toast slightly to a delicate brown. Spread thickly with 
butter and add a generous layer of grated cheese. Place three or four of these 
in a cereal bowl in sandwich form, one on top of the other, with the buttered 
side up. When ready to serve, pour over this a cup of hot milk. Part cream 
may be used if desired, but the butter and cheese make it very nourishing and 
appetizing. 

Egg Salad. —Cook six eggs until hard. Carefully remove whites from 
yolks. Mash the yolk, and mix with one minced onion and a little parsley, 
salt, and red pepper. Add salad dressing until of the right consistency. Cut 
the whites into small pieces. Place a spoonful of the salad mixture upon a 
plate, sprinkle the white over the top, and serve. 

Baked Rice with Cheese. —Add alternately cooked rice, cheese, and a 
little salt and red pepper, until the baking dish is full. Pour a little milk over 
the top, and cover with buttered bread crumbs. Bake until a delicate brown. 

Grape Nuts Pudding. —Allow about four tablespoonfuls of grape nuts 
to each person served. Put to soak for two or three hours, in milk enough 
to cover them. Chop up some dates, figs and raisins, using about the same 
amount of fruit as you do cereal. Mix thoroughly together, then add several 
spoonfuls of nuts, chopped or ground. Make into squares or round shapes 
and serve in dessert dishes with whipped cream or the white of egg beaten 
stiff and sweetened with honey or powdered sugar. 


Macaroni with Cheese. —Break macaroni into small pieces. Cook 
until it has doubled its size, and then drain off water. Prepare a white sauce, 
and add alternately into a bake pan, white sauce, macaroni, and grated cheese, 
until the pan is full. Cover top with buttered bread crumbs and place in 
oven. Bake until a delicate brown. Serve in baking dish. 





584 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


SATURDAY. 

Dinner . 


Breakfast. 


Lettuce Salad, served with 
Peanut Sandwiches 
Baked Cabbage with Cheese 
Potatoes Served on Half Shell 
Graham Muffins 
New Maple Sirup 
French Apple Sauce Nuts 


Stewed Dried Peaches Figs 
Oatmeal with Cream 
Creamed Asparagus on Toast 
Rye Bread Butter 
Postum 


Creamed Asparagus on Toast. —Use one can of asparagus. Drain 
off juice, and cut into small pieces. Put the asparagus into a white sauce, 
and serve all on toast. Garnish with parsley. This makes a very good 
breakfast or luncheon dish. 

Baked Cabbage with Cheese. —Cut the cabbage the same as for cold- 
slaw. Parboil until tender, and then drain off water. Put into a bake dish 
alternate layers of cabbage, white sauce, and grated cheese, seasoning to 
taste. Continue until dish is full, having cheese for the last layer. Cover 
with bread crumbs and bake until brown. Serve in bake dish. 

Baked Potatoes on Half Shell. —Bake potatoes, and when done 
cut in two lengthwise halves, with sharp knife. Scrape out contents into 
hot bowl, and then mash. To every six potatoes, add two tablespoonfuls 
butter, three tablespoonfuls hot milk, and one-half teaspoonful salt. Mix 
thoroughly, beating with fork or Dover egg beater. Then add beaten whites 
of two eggs. Do not stir, but beat . Refill skins very lightly, heaping high 
on top and keeping the surface ragged. Put these skins upon shallow pan, and 
place in oven until well browned. Garnish with parsley, and serve hot on 
hot platter. 

Graham Muffins. —Two cups Graham flour; one-half teaspoonful 
salt; three and one-half level teaspoonfuls baking powder; one-third cup 
sugar; one egg, beaten; one tablespoonful melted butter. Bake twenty- 
five minutes in greased muffin pans, in moderate oven. 

French Apple Sauce.— Wash and core several red apples. Butter 
deep, earthen dish, and into this slice in rings not more than one-fourth of 
an inch thick, the prepared apples. Dot with a few bits of butter, and 
sprinkle with brown or white sugar mixed with a little flour. End with 
sugar and flour on top. Cover dish lightly with paste, and bake in moderate 
oven one hour. The sauce should be deep red in color, and thick and juicy. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 585 


Uncooked Vegetarian Foods. 


SUNDAY. 


Breakfast. 

Grape Fruit 
Banana and Nut Cereal 
Minced Onions and Cabbage Salad 
with Mayonnaise Dressing 
Dates Stuffed with Cheese 
Sumik 


Dinner. 

Wheat Flakes and Raisins, with 
Cream 

Vegetable Medley with Dressing 
Sandwiches of Bran Biscuit and 
Peanut Butter 

Fancy Fruit Salad in Orange 
Grape Juice 


Banana and Nut Cereal. —As this constitutes the principal part of 
a meal, serve a generous quantity. Take a large cereal bowl and first put 
in it a layer of Post Toasties; then add another layer of wheat, or oat flakes, 
according to dictation of appetite; next slice a banana and arrange daintily 
on top. Between the banana slices place the half meats of either walnuts, 

pecans, or any favorite nut. Do not add the cream until served, as this 

tends to soak the cereals, thereby removing their delicious crispness. 

Minced Onion and Cabbage Salad. —Chop rather finely the desired 
amount of cabbage and onions. Some like only a small quantity of onions 
to merely give the salad a slight flavor, while others prefer half of each. 
Daintily garnish a salad dish with lettuce or parsley; then put on several 

spoonfuls of the minced vegetables. Pour a liberal amount of the mayon¬ 

naise dressing over this and serve. 

Mayonnaise Dressing. —Allow the yolk of one egg for each person, 
or if you have no use for the whites of egg, use one egg for every two 
salads served. Whip the egg lightly; then add two tablespoonfuls of olive 
oil, and lemon juice enough to suit the taste. If still accustomed to the 
use of salt, a slight pinch may be added to the above mixture; then beat 
well. This dressing makes a very appetizing addition to any vegetable 
salad. 

Vegetable Medley. —This can be made of as many vegetables as one 
desires, having them chopped rather fine and mixed well together. Serve 
on a garnished salad dish with mayonnaise dressing. 

Fancy Fruit Salad in Orange.— Use the following fruit silad recipe 
with the addition of nuts. Cut the top off an orange; remove all the 
inside; use this in the salad. Fill the orange with the salad mixture, cover 
with whipped cream, place a walnut-meat in center, and sprinkle with 
ground nuts. t 






MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


586 


MONDAY. 


Breakfast . 

Triscuit and Cheese Sandwiches 
Fruit and Cereal Medley with 
Cream 

Combination Vegetable Salad 
Prune Whip Grape Lemonade 


Dinner. 

Date Marmalade Sandwiches 
Cream Slaw 

Sliced Onions with Dressing 
Apple, Date and Nut Dessert 
Sumik 


Fruit and Cereal Medley. —Mince some figs, oranges, bananas and 
dates, mixing well together. Put a few grape nuts in a cereal bowl, then 
a layer of the fruit mixture; sprinkle a little more of the cereal on this and 
add about five spoonfuls of the fruit dropped separately; one in the center 
and four evenly distanced around the outside. Serve with cream. 

Prune Whip. —Soak some prunes over night, in cold water If a good 
grade of prunes is used, this should make them as soft as when cooked. 
Some require longer soaking to be soft enough. Remove the seeds and 
mash to a jelly. Serve in a dessert dish, and drop three teaspoonfuls of 
whipped cream, separately and evenly distanced on top. Place the half meat 
of a walnut or pecan in center of each spoonful of whipped cream. If daintily 
served this makes a very pretty dish. 

Grape Lemonade.— Fill a glass two-thirds full of water; add the 
juice of half a lemon; then fill with grape juice. 

Date Marmalade Sandwiches.— Pit the dates and soak in just enough 
lukewarm water to cover them, for several hours. Mash, or run them 
through a colander. Serve between buttered triscuit, bran biscuit, or whole¬ 
wheat bread. 

Apple, Date and Nut Dessert.— Slice some apples in dessert dishes 
and sprinkle them with chopped or ground nuts. Tastily arrange the halves 
of dates on top; sprinkle again with nuts and grated cocoanut. Serve with 
cream or olive oil. This is also very nice with the juice of an orange poured 
over it. 

Dried Apple Sauce. —Soak the dried fruit, in just enough lukewarm 
water to cover it, until it is in a soft state to be easily mashed with a fork, 
or run through a colander. Sweeten to taste and serve plain or with cream. 

















































. 















































































































































































APPLE and celery salad. 


Apple and Celery Salad. 

Peel one apple, cut into small 
pieces ; take one small stalk of 
celery and chop it finely; add 
the two together and make a 
dressing of sour cream and 
lemon. 

Spaghetti, Creole Style. 

Cut up three to four long pieces 
of spaghetti. Place in boiling 
water and boil fifteen minutes ; 
then set aside to swell for ten 


SPAGHETTI, CREOLE STYLE. 

minutes. Add to a finely chopped 
onion, two tablespoonsful of 
butter and a teaspoonful of 
finely chopped green pepper; 
then allow to fry for four 
minutes. Then heat a cupful 
of canned tomatoes, and add 
fried onion and pepper. Now 
take spaghetti and strain off 
water, add to the tomatoes, etc., 
and salt to ‘aste. Waen ready 
to serve sprinkle a little grated 
cheese over the whole. 


ONIONS AND POTATOES WITH CHEESE, 


Onions and Potatoes with 
Cheese. 

Peel two onions, and wash three 
unpared potatoes; cut in fine 
slices and place in small bak¬ 
ing pan with two ounces of but¬ 
ter and a quarter cup olive oil; 
salt to taste; cover and place 
in hot oven until done. While 
cooking stir two or three times. 
When done sprinkle grated 
cheese over top and replace in 
oven for a minute. Serve hot, 
turned out' on platter. 



SCALLOPED 


Scalloped Potatoes. 

Pare two or three po¬ 
tatoes ; boil and slice 
thin in a baking pan ; 
season with a little salt, 
butter and \/ 0 a grated 
onion and pour over the 
whole a white cream 
sauce made of a cup 
of boiling m’llc, added 
to a paste made of a 
tablespoonfn! of butter 
and one teaspoonfol of 
whole wheat flour, 
'stirred well together, 
seasoned with salt, pep¬ 
per and a touch of 
grated onion. After 
sauce is poured o , vei* 
potatoes, spread over 
top a well-beaten egg, 
as this gives it a brown 
crust on top and looks 
very appetising. 


FRUIT SALAD. 


Fruit Salad. 

Take one small pine¬ 
apple and slice* into 
pieces; also two apples 
and three bananas and 
do likewise. Chop % 
lb. almonds or pigno- 
lias or any other nut 
Add all together and 
dress with equal quan¬ 
tities of honey and 
lemon. 


Fruited Rice. 

Take a half cup of rice 
aD-l wash in cold water ; 
put in sauce pan with 
a little water and let 
come to a boil; boil ten 
minutes and set aside 
for fifteen minutes to 
steam, with cover on 


FRUITED RICE. 

sauce pan. Have ready 
one-half cup of raisins 
and one-half cup of 
currants, thoroughly 
washed, and also a cup¬ 
ful of cream ; add this 
to rice; also raisins 
and currants; stir to¬ 
gether and boil again 
for three minutes; 
serve hot with a sliced 
banana on top and 
sugar and milk to taste. 


Egg Plant. 

Slice a small sized egg 
plant in quarter inch 
pieces ; soak for a half 
hour in cold water 
with a pinch of salt in 
it. Have ready some 


EGG PLANT. 

cracker meal, a little 
whole wheat flour and 
two well-beaten eggs; 
drain off water from 
slices ; now cover slices, 
one at a time, in flour 
first; second, dip in 
egg, and third, cover 
with cracker crumbs, 
and last back into egg; 
have on the stove a 
small dripping pan with 
a part olive oil and a 
part butter, very hot; 
place slices in and fry 
until a light brown 
(about six minutes). 
Ho not pare egg plant 
until ready to use, ns 
exposure to air will 
cause them to turn 
black. 



A type of the wholesome whole wheat bread sold by Physical Culture Restaurants. 


588 










OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 589 


TUESDAY. 


Breakfast. 

Fig and Triscuit Sandwiches 
Apple, Celery and Nut Salad 
Nutted Cottage Cheese 
Fruit Salad 
Milk 


Dinner. 

Nutted Fruit Corn Flakes with 
Cream 

Celery Hearts Stuffed with Cheese 
Garnished Pepper Salad 
Banana Delicacy 
Apple Juice 


Apple Celery and Nut Salad. —Chop apples, celery and mixed nuts 
of any kind, very fine. Mix well together and serve with whipped sour 
cream, or mayonnaise dressing. 

Nutted Cottage Cheese. —Take peanut butter or ground nuts cf 
any kind desired, and mix thoroughly with cottage cheese. Use enough nuts 
to merely give it a nice color. 


Fruit Salad. —Cut into small pieces some figs, dates, bananas, oranges 
and pineapple; any fruit can be used. In regard to quantity of each, mix 
according to taste, and use enough oranges to make it very juicy. This 
is very nice if served plain, with whipped cream, or with the addition of a 
few nuts. 


Nutted Fruit Corn Flakes. —Fill a cereal bowl two-thirds full of 
corn flakes. Remove the seeds from dates and nicely arrange the halves on 
top of the cereal. Sprinkle with ground nuts, and serve with cream or olive 
oil. 

Garnished Pepper Salad. —Select some well-shaped green peppers or 
mangoes; cut off the top and remove the seeds; then place in a pan of cold 
water and let remain until water begins to boil. Take them out of water 
and let cool. In the meantime prepare a mixture of vegetables, cabbage, 
celery, onions and any vegetables that are preferred, chopped fine and thor¬ 
oughly mixed with the mayonnaise dressing. Stuff the peppers with this 
mixture, place three olives on top, and serve on a salad dish garnished with 
lettuce. 


Banana Delicacy. —Take thoroughly ripened bananas, and mash to a 
pulp with a fork. Serve in a dessert dish. Cover with whipped cream and 
arrange small chunks of orange and nut meats, alternately, on top. 





590 MACE AD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


WEDNESDAY. 


Breakfast. 

Shredded Wheat Biscuit with 


Dinner. * 


Luncheon Sandwiches 
Rolled Wheat and Raisins with 
Cream 

Combination Salad with Mayon¬ 
naise Dressing 
Banana Whip Sumik 


Fruit 


Entire Wheat Bread 


Butter Peanut Butter 
Apple, Nut and Cheese Salad 


Atwood Grape Fruit 


Banana Coffee 


Shredded Wheat Biscuit with Fruit. —Select a good, ripe banana 
and mash to a pulp with a fork. Add a few chopped dates, or merely cut 
them in small pieces. This constitutes the fruit mixture. If handled rather 
carefully, the shredded wheat biscuit can be cut in halves, lengthwise. After 
so doing, take a large cereal bowl and crumble in it, very fine, one half of 
the biscuit; then evenly spread the fruit mixture over this. Take the top 
of the biscuit, as that always has such a delicate brown color, and place in 
the center of the dish. Serve with cream. 

Apple, Nut and Cheese Salad.— In this salad, use the quantity of 
each according to the flavor desired to predominate. Cut the apple into 
small cubes, and grate the cheese rather fine. Any kind of nuts, either ground 
or in halves, can be added and all stirred well together. This is very nice 
served with olive oil or the mayonnaise dressing described in the Sunday menu 
of Uncooked Vegetarian Foods. 

Luncheon Sandwiches. —Make a sandwich dressing of cottage cheese 
and chopped dates mixed thoroughly together. Place a generous quantity 
of this mixture between the buttered slices of whole-wheat bread, or well- 
buttered triscuits. 

Combination Salad. —This salad can be made of as many different 
vegetables as one may happen to have on hand at this season of the year. 
They can be chopped or minced very fine, or if preferred cut in small cubes 
or chunks. If a tart salad is desired, serve with plain lemon juice; but a 
dressing consisting of olive oil and lemon juice beaten thoroughly together, 
makes it far more appetizing. Or serve with mayonnaise dressing. 

Banana Whip. —Use only the real ripe bananas for this dessert. Mash 
them to a smooth jelly with a fork; then add, in quantity, about one half 
as much whipped cream as you have of the fruit, and stir well together. 
Serve in a dessert dish, and cover with a generous smooth layer of whipped 
cream. Sprinkle with ground nuts, and neatly arrange the halves of walnut 
meats on top. Make this dessert at the latest possible moment, for the 
mashed bananas grow very dark colored if allowed to stand any great length 
of time. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


591 


THURSDAY. 


Breakfast . 


Dinner . 

Triscuit 


Nutted Milk Flakes with Honey 
Entire Wheat Bread 
Butter Fruit Butter 
Cheese and Onion Salad 
Hawaiian Pineapple with Whipped 
Cream Orangeade 


Butter Apricot Marmalade 
Cottage Cheese and Vegetable 


Salad 

Apple Dessert 
Welch Grape Juice 


Nutted Milk Flakes with Honey. —For each person served, allow 
half a cup of rolled oat flakes. Allow them to soak an hour or more, in 
just milk enough to cover them and a quantity of honey to make them suf¬ 
ficiently sweet. Stir well together and place in a cereal bowl. Sprinkle 
with corn flakes and a generous amount of any kind of nuts desired. Serve 
with cream or olive oil. 

Fruit Butter. —Use any kind of dried fruit desired. Put it in luke¬ 
warm water, enough to cover well, and let remain until the fruit is very 
soft, resembling the cooked state. Run through a colander; then mix thor¬ 
oughly with the juice it has been soaking in. Sweeten to taste with either 
sugar or honey. Can be served plain or with whipped cream daintily dropped 
on top and garnished with nut meats. 

Pineapple with Whipped Cream. —At some times of the year it is 
somewhat difficult to secure the fresh fruit, but the canned is easily obtained, 
either in chunks or circles. Place in a dessert dish, cover with whipped 
cream, and sprinkle with grated cocoanut or ground nuts. 

Cottage Cheese and Vegetable Salad. —Select various kinds of 
vegetables, according to preference, and mince fine. Stir well together and 
place a generous flat layer on a garnished salad dish. Drop about three 
spoonfuls of cottage cheese, evenly distanced, on this layer, put a walnut 
meat in the center of each spoonful of cheese, and pour a liberal amount of 
mayonnaise dressing over it all. 

Apple Dessert. —Select a large, rosy apple and cut in halves, not length¬ 
wise. Remove the core and all the inside of the apple, leaving merely a 
shell thick enough to serve the salad in. The proportions may vary in this 
salad according to the individual’s taste. Slice some apples very thin, cut 
dates in small pieces and break the nut meats in little chunks. Mix all to¬ 
gether and fill the apple shell with this salad. Place on a dessert dish, cover 
the top with whipped cream, and sprinkle with ground nuts. Put a walnut 
meat in center. 






592 MAC FAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


FRIDAY. 


Breakfast . 


Dinner. 

Cheese and Onion Sandwich 


Fig and Triscuit Sandwich 
Combination Salad with Mayon 
naise Dressing 
Fruit and Nut Salad 
Soaked Peaches and Cream 
Malt Coffee 


Fruit Jumble with Honey 
Minced Cabbage Salad 
Shredded Wheat Dessert 


Grape Eggnog 


Soaked Peaches and Cream. —Soak the dried peaches until softened; 
then put about three pieces of the fruit in a dessert dish. Pour some honey 
over these, and drop a spoonful of whipped cream on each peach. 

Cheese and Onion Sandwiches. —Grate the cheese and mince the 

onions very fine. Use in proportion, as desired. Mix well with enough 

\ 

of the mayonnaise dressing to make it a proper consistency for spreading. 
Use between well-buttered slices of whole-wheat bread or triscuit. 

Fruit Jumble with Honey. —Sprinkle a light layer of corn flakes or 
any favorite cereal, in a large cereal bowl. Next add a layer of sliced apples. 
Pour some honey over this and sprinkle again with the cereal. Then ar¬ 
range a generous layer of sliced oranges and nuts. More honey can then be 
added. It is very nice if served in the plain way, or it can be eaten with 
cream. 

Shredded Wheat Dessert.— With a sharp knife, cut a good sized 
square in the top of a shredded wheat biscuit. Remove all the shreds pos¬ 
sible to make the place as large as can be for the fruit. Mash bananas to a 
pulp, and fill the biscuit with this. Cover with whipped cream and daintily 
arrange a few nut meats on top. Any fruit desired can be used in the 
biscuit. 

Grape Eggnog. —Allow one egg for each person. Beat the yolks and 
whites separately. To the yolk of the egg, add enough grape juice to give 
it a fine color. Sweeten with honey. Then pour in a glass. If desired, 
the white can be sweetened with either honey or sugar. Put in the glass 
on top of the yolk, and serve. 






OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 593 



SATURDAY. 

Breakfast. 


Dinner. 

Shredded Wheat Medley 

Whole-Wheat Bread 

Apple and 

Nut Salad 

Butter Dried Apple Sauce 

American Cheese 

Cottage Cheese and Cabbage Salad 

Figs 

Apples 

Mixed Nuts Bananas 

Marble Dessert 

Nutted Eggnog 

Apple Dessert Grape Juice 


Shredded Wheat Medley. —Crumble a shredded wheat biscuit in a 
cereal bowl. Select a dozen good Persian dates, cut in small pieces and 
place over the top of biscuit layer. Next sprinkle a generous quantity of raw 
peanuts over this mixture and serve with cream. 

Apple and Nut Salad. —Take equal quantities of walnuts, pecans and 
almonds chopped rather fine. Use the same amount of apple (also finely 
minced), as the nut mixture, and stir well together. Then pour a generous 
quantity of mayonnaise dressing over this and serve on a garnished salad 
dish, tastily arranging a few olives on top. 

Marble Dessert. —Use an equal quantity of dates, figs, bananas and 
apples, minced very fine, thoroughly mixed' together. This constitutes the 
fruit mixture. If obtainable, use the fresh cocoanut, grated. If not, the 
shredded cocoanut will answer the purpose, although it is not as desirable 
and nicely flavored as the fresh nut. Spread quite a generous layer of this 
fruit mixture in a dessert dish. Sprinkle a thick layer of the cocoanut over this 
and then drop three small spoonfuls, evenly distanced, on top of the last 
layer. Place an almond meat on each spoonful of the fruit and lay a large 
dark raisin between each spoonful. These make a fine contrast on the 
cocoanut. 

Nutted Eggnog.—To the beaten yolk of an egg add several large 
spoonfuls of milk (according to size of glass used), enough honey or sugar 
to sweeten, and two spoonfuls of ground nuts; then beat well. Pour into 
a glass and add the beaten white of the egg, slightly sweetened. Sprinkle 
lightly with the ground nuts. This is a delicious drink if it is properly 
seasoned and if a favorite kind of nut is used. 

Cottage Cheese and Cabbage Salad.—M ix thoroughly, equal propor¬ 
tions of shredded or chopped cabbage and cottage cheese. Then stir in a 
liberal quantity of mayonnaise dressing, or if preferred use the olive oil 
and- lemon juice. 








594 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Mixed Foods (Including Meats). 

Hp HE following bills of fare have been selected for those 
^ who for any reason find themselves unable to follow an 
exclusive vegetarian diet. 

Those who are accustomed to three meals per day at the 
usual hours for such meals should eat some light fruit either 
at the noon or the morning meal, and the two heavy meals at 
the other meal hours. 

Salt is the only seasoning allowed. 

Fruit always means bananas or apples or other common 
varieties. Especial care is necessary to see that all fruit is 
served at proper ripeness. 

Whole-wheat bread should be served at every meal. 

Strained honey should be used instead of sugar when 
practicable. 

Milk and water may be served at all meals. Drinking, 
unless to satisfy thirst, should be avoided. 


SUNDAY. 


Dinner . 

Supper. 


Chicken or Turkey Soup 
Roast Beef 

Fruit 

Whole Wheat 

Mashed Potatoes Squash 

Eggs Fried in Butter 

String or Butter Beans 

Beet Salad 

Hot Corn-Bread 

Tomatoes (stewed) 

Fruit 

Graham Flour Cake 

Honey 

Nuts and Dates 


Chicken or Turkey Soup. —Cover the bones, skin, etc., left from 
roast chickens or turkey with cold water, add one onion, a little celery, one- 
quarter of a bay leaf, bit of red pepper, and cook three or four hours. 
Strain, skim off the fat, add salt to taste and one cup of cooked rice, heat 
well and serve in cups with toast. 


German Chicken Soup. —Cut up the entire chicken at the joints. Put 
on in cold water and boil on a slow fire three hours, then take the meat out 
of the vessel and remove all the meat from the bones, chop it very fine, or 
better still, put it through a meat cutter and cut as fine as possible; then 
put the meat in a saucepan and strain the soup on it. Cut three onions and 
a small bunch of parsley leaves and add to the soup five minutes before 
serving. 





.. 


OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 595 


Summer Squash. —Pare, cut up and simmer until tender. Mash with 
butter and salt. 

Winter Squash will need longer cooking than summer squash, and 
the seeds must be removed. 

Baked Squash. —Add to squash cut into small cubes one tablespoonful 
melted butter, two raw eggs, and three tablespoonfuls milk. Pepper and salt 
to taste. Put in buttered bake dish, sift dry crumbs over the top, and bake 
in a quick oven. 

Roast Beef. —The best pieces for roasting are the sirloin rib and fillet. 
Rub the meat with salt, then dredge with flour; put a rack in the basting 
pan, set the roast on the rack and put in a hot oven for fifteen minutes; 
then cover the bottom of the pan with water; allow fifteen minutes to the 
pound if the meat is to be rare, twenty minutes if moderately well done. 
Baste often. 

Whole Wheat. —Put a quantity of this wheat in a vessel and soak 
it over night in water. In the morning salt to taste, pour milk over it and 
simmer—not boil—for from three to five hours. The longer it simmers 
the softer it will become and the more delicious it will taste when first 
placed in the mouth, though it would be well to remember that thorough 
chewing will bring out slowly but surely the full delicacy of the flavor even 
if not cooked until soft. This wheat can be eaten with butter, honey, cream 
or cream and sugar, though if the taste is not accustomed to “palate ticklers” 
of this character it will be found appetizing without any addition whatever. 
If it is desired to make the dish especially rich, it can be soaked in milk in¬ 
stead of water over night. If milk cannot be had, water can be used instead, 
though, of course, it will not taste so palatable. 

This process can be applied to almost any of the whole grains, such as 
corn, barley, rye, etc., and they will be found very palatable and nourishing. 

Whole or Entire Wheat Bread. —Three quarts of whole wheat 
flour, one quart lukewarm water or milk, one teaspoon salt, one tablespoon 
honey, molasses or brown sugar, and one compressed yeast cake dissolved in 
half cup of lukewarm water. To the lukewarm mixture of water, salt, 
sweetening and yeast, first add only enough of the flour to make a thin 
batter, and beat thoroughly for ten minutes. Cover and stand in a warm 
place for two or three hours, or until it raises. Then add the rest of the 
flour to make a soft dough. It should be said that the amount of flour may 
vary, because different manufacturers produce different qualities of whole 
wheat flour, some heavier, some lighter. There is as yet no standard. It 
may take more or less, but add enough to make a soft dough. Knead this 
quickly until it loses its stickiness. Divide into three or four loaves, put in 
greased pans, cover and let stand for an hour in a warm place, about 75 degrees 
Fahr., until it raises again; butter the top and put in a hot oven. As soon 
as brown reduce the heat and let it bake three-quarters of an hour. 




596 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


MONDAY. 

Dinner. 

Supper. 

Split Pea Soup Turnips 

Fruit Whole Wheat 

Lentil Cutlets Creamed Potates 

Scrambled Eggs Hominy 

Beets Baked Custard 

Lettuce or Watercress Salad 

Fruit 

Corn Muffins, hot Nuts Figs 


Split Pea Soup. —This soup may be made with or without meat, as 
desired. If meat is used, bones from lamb or veal will do. Or simply the 
bacon will suffice. Put the bones, etc., in a pot, with two slices of bacon, 
salt to taste, one onion, a little celery, two and a half quarts of water, and 
one pint split peas which have soaked in cold water over night. Cook 
slowly four or five hours, press through a colander, heat, and serve. A 
ham bone may be used instead of other meat. 

Lentil Cutlets. —Soak over night one cupful of dried lentils and one- 
third cupful of dried lima beans. Drain, add two quarts of water, half an 
onion, a stalk of celery. Cook until soft, remove the seasonings and rub 
through a sieve. Add one cupful of stale bread crumbs, one beaten egg, 
seasoning to taste, and the juice of half a lemon. Melt one tablespoonful 
and a half of butter, add one tablespoonful and a half of flour, and pour on 
gradually one-third cupful of sweet milk. Let cook until smooth and thick, 
and add to the lentil mixture. Set aside to cool. Then form into small 
cutlets, dip in beaten egg, then in powdered -cracker crumbs and fry to a 
golden brown. Drain, and serve with tomato sauce. 

Peas may be used for this dish. 

Beets. —Do not break the skins in washing or they will lose their color 
in cooking. Boil one hour. Rub off the skins, split in halves, dish, and pour on 
them a boiling mixture of one tablespoonful of melted butter and salt. Serve 
very hot. 

Beets with Olive Oil. —Boil the beets, peel, slice and serve cold with 
lemon juice and olive oil. 

Creamed Potatoes. —Put one tablespoonful butter in a frying pan and 
when it bubbles add one tablespoonful flour. Add one cup hot milk, with 
salt to taste. Add one pint cold boiled potatoes cut into small dice. Cook 
until thoroughly hot. 

Mashed Turnips. —Select the large yellow turnips, as they are sweetest. 
Wash, pare and cut them into pieces. Boil them in salted boiling water 
until tender, two hours, pouring off the first water if they are old and 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


597 


strong. Drain, mash, season with butter and salt, and heap lightly in a 
vegetable dish. 

Creamed Turnips. —Cut peeled turnips into half-inch dice, boil in 
a very small quantity of water. When cooked, pour over a cream sauce 
made of one cup hot milk poured gradually over one tablespoonful each butter 
and flour rubbed together. Season and serve. All vegetables made in this 
style should never be allowed to get cold before cream or sauce is added. 
When allowed to become cold they are not as easily digested and do not absorb 
the cream or sauce. 

Boiled Turnips. —Pare and cut into quarters. Place into boiling water; 
boil till tender. Add butter, and a pinch of sugar. Stir and mix. Serve hot. 

Baked Custard. —Beat five eggs, five tablespoonfuls sugar, one quart 
milk, one-half teaspoonful vanilla, and bake in a moderate oven until firm. 
If desired, pour the custard into cups, set in a pan of water and bake twenty 
minutes. 

Scrambled Eggs. —Beat six eggs slightly and salt. Put a piece of butter 
in the frying pan, and when hot pour in the eggs. Stir constantly until 
done. To make this dish light and juicy beat two tablespoonfuls of milk 
with each egg. 

Lettuce or Watercress Salad. —Wash and wipe carefully and serve 
with French dressing. 

Hominy. —Into three and a half cups of boiling salted water stir one 
cupful fine hominy; steam or cook slowly four hours; slow, long cooking 
improves it, though hominy may be cooked by boiling one hour. 

Corn Muffins (No. 1).—Two cups Indian meal, one cup flour, two 
cups milk, one tablespoonful sugar, two tablespoonfuls melted butter, two 
teaspoonfuls baking powder, three eggs, a pinch salt, beaten separately. Mix 
meal, milk, yolks of the eggs, sugar, butter, add the flour mixed with the 
baking powder, lastly the whites of the eggs. Beat well and bake in hot- 
greased pans in a hot oven. This makes twelve muffins. 

Corn Muffins (No. 2). —Two cups corn meal, one and one-half cups 
flour, two and one-half cups sour milk, two eggs beaten separately, one 
teaspoonful shortening, one teaspoonful salt, one-half cup molasses, one-half 
teaspoonful baking soda, one teaspoonful baking powder. Beat well and 
quickly, put in hot gem pans, and bake one-half to three-quarters of an 
hour. This quantity makes twelve muffins. 

The soda must be put into the sour milk, of course. Some cooks leave 
out the baking powder and use more soda, but I like the other way better. 
These muffins will be found nicer than those made with sweet milk. But¬ 
termilk also may be used. 

Vol. 1—37 




598 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


TUESDAY. 


Dinner. 

Baked Potatoes Asparagus 
Carrots Baked Beans 

Fruit 

Baked Rolled Oats (with butter) 


Supper . 

Fruit Cheese Omelet 

Whole-Wheat Muffins (hot) 
Watercress Salad Honey 
Whole Wheat Nuts 


Baked Potatoes. — Select even-sized potatoes, wash carefully and wipe 
dry and put in a moderately hot oven. Bake until soft. Break the skin of 
each a little. They should be done in about 45 minutes. 

Sweet Potatoes can be baked as above. 

Stewed Carrots. —Scrape young carrots, and cut in strips and boil in 
salted water one-half hour. Serve with drawn butter sauce or melted butter. 

Carrots and Peas. —Scrape and cut up six small carrots and boil. Mix 
with one cup of cooked peas (canned peas will serve), and one cup drawn 
butter sauce. 

Mashed Carrots.—S crape, boil and mash the carrots and beat in one 
^blespoonful butter, salt and two tablespoonfuls cream. 

Baked Beans. —Soak one quart small white beans over night, drain and 
simmer; then add one cup milk or cream, two tablespoonfuls butter, two 
chopped onions, one teaspoonful salt. Turn into a bean-pot or baking dish, 
and bake in a slow oven six hours, adding water occasionally if necessary. ' 

Asparagus. —Wash, cut off the ends and tie in bundles; cook in enough 
boiling salted water to cover for twenty to thirty minutes. Serve on toast 
with drawn butter sauce, using the water in which the asparagus was boiled, 
instead of milk, in making the sauce- 

Baked Rolled Oats. —Steep rolled oats in sufficient sweet milk to cover 
it; season with salt and nutmeg to taste; put the mixture in a cool place or 
in an ice-chest for about one and a half hours, to prevent the milk from 
curdling and to allow the oats to absorb the milk. 

Butter a bread pan, pour the mixture into it, put small lumps of butter 
over the top of it, and bake in an oven of medium temperature for from 
40 to 50 minutes. Cut it in slices, and serve hot on warm plates. 

Oat-Meal Bread. —One cup of rolled oats soaked in two cups of boiling 
water. One-half cup molasses, one teaspoon salt, one tablespoon butter- 
When blood-warm, add one-half yeast cake, dissolve in warm water, and then 
four and one-half cups whole wheat flour. Mix with knife, and allow to 
remain ail night. In morning cut down with knife and allow to rise again 
before putting in buttered tins. Cut down and pour into pans, raising once 
more before baking. Bake forty-five minutes. This quantity makes two 
loaves. A pinch of baking soda often helps to insure a good sweet bread. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


599 


To make omelets light and delicious, strictly fresh eggs must be used, 
and the skillet in which they are made should be used exclusively for that 
purpose. 

In making savory omelets, the savory ingredients should always be beaten 
in with the yolks. 

The savory ingredient may be grated cheese or raw apples; or finely 
chopped onions, one heaping teaspoonful to each egg; or the amount may be 
varied to suit. 

Cheese Omelet. —Proceed as for plain omelet, only add one tablespoon¬ 
ful grated cheese. 

Whole-Wheat Muffins (No. 1).—Tablespoonful of pure olive oil•; 
tablespoonful of honey or sugar; one egg beaten with a cup of milk; one 
and one-half cups of whole-wheat flour; one teaspoonful baking powder; 
saltspoonful of salt. 

Beat the olive oil, sugar and egg together, then add the cup of milk. 
Mix the flour, baking powder and salt well; then mix all well together. 

Bake in a hot oven for twenty minutes. 

This portion will make twelve muffins. 

Whole-Wheat Muffins (No. 2). —Two cups entire-wheat flour, 
two cups milk, one egg well beaten, two teaspoonfuls baking powder. Mix 
powder and flour, stir in egg and milk thoroughly and pour into hot gem 
pans. Bake in hot oven one-half hour, or until done. 

Whole Grains of Cereals. —The variety of dishes made from grains 
prepared in this way is almost unlimited. For instance, eggs can be poached or 
prepared in almost any way, and served on boiled wheat or other grains, and it 
will be found a very palatable and nourishing dish. Grains prepared in this 
way can be added to a salad and will greatly increase its nourishing and ap¬ 
petizing qualities. It can also be served with steak and other meats. In 
fact, a well informed housekeeper can originate an unlimited variety of 
dishes in which boiled whole grains can be used to great advantage. 

In case you should be caught without flour at any time, bread can be 
made of any one of these whole grains by the following process: 

Soak the grains over night in water. In the morning salt and simmer 
until soft. When possible put in enough water to cook the grain to a proper 
degree of softness without adding more. When the water has all evaporated 
and the grains have become soft, remove from the stove and place a small 
quantity at a time in a jar, and put through the same process required in 
mashing potatoes. This will reduce it to a pulpy mass. Now, using gem 
pans, place in a hot oven and allow it to remain until baked through to a 
proper hardness. Serve with butter or as ordinary bread. In preparing 
this be careful to see that the grain has been cooked to a proper degree of 
softness, as otherwise it will not macerate sufficiently. 




600 MAC FAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Dinner. 


WEDNESDAY. 

Supper. 


Roast Turkey or Chicken 
Peas, au Gratin 
Egg Plant 

Baked Sweet Potatoes (same as 
Irish potatoes) 

Scalloped Tomatoes 
Dessert (Floating Island) 
Fruit 


Fruit 

Boiled Eggs 
Tomato Salad 
Whole Wheat 
Macaroni with Cheese 
Rice Muffins 
Honey 


Roast Turkey. —Wash the turkey inside and out, wipe and singe the 
pin feathers. Make a stuffing as follows: Crumb up one loaf of stale bread 
and (put the crusts in a bowl of water and wring out dry) moisten one 
tablespoonful butter, season with salt and one-half teaspoonful thyme; stuff 
the turkey and sew up; salt the turkey and put in baking pan, preferably a 
double baking pan, with a cup of hot water; roast, if good sized, three or four 
hours. (The time also depends on the age of the fowl.) Baste frequently unless 
a double pan is used. Be careful not to let the pan get dry and so burn the 
turkey. When' done, place on a hot platter and make a gravy by pouring one 
and a half cups hot water into the pan and thickening it with flour. 

Roast Chicken. —Same as turkey. 

Peas au Gratin. —Soak one pint dried peas or split peas in cold water 
over night. Simmer five hours with half an onion and a little celery. 
Drain, put through a colander and add one cup bread crumbs, one and one- 
half tablespoonfuls butter, salt to taste, one cup of milk, and put in a bak¬ 
ing dish. Grate a little cheese on top, and bake one hour. 

Egg Plant. —Slice the egg plant at least half an inch thick, pare each 
slice, and fry brown. Don’t soak in salted water or lay it in salt, as is often 
done, since this spoils tht flavor. 

Scalloped Tomatoes. —Take six large ripe tomatoes, skin and cut into 
small pieces. Spread a layer in the bottom of bake dish, season well, put a 
layer of coarse bread crumbs over the tomatoes with bits of butter. Con¬ 
tinue this until the dish is full, having bread crumbs on top. Bake one hour. 

Floating Island. —One quart milk, five eggs, pinch of salt, four table¬ 
spoonfuls granulated sugar, one-half teaspoonful vanilla. Put the milk in 
a double boiler to heat. Beat the yolks of the eggs and add the sugar. 






OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


601 


When the milk is scalding hot, stir it slowly into the eggs and sugar. (This 
prevents curdling, which is hard to avoid if the eggs are poured into the 
milk.) Pour back into the double boiler, and stir until it thickens. Then 
add vanilla and set aside to cool. Just before serving, beat the whites of 
the eggs to a stiff froth with two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and 
drop on the custard in little “islands.” The addition of a little ring of cur¬ 
rant jelly to the top of each “island” is an improvement in both the appear¬ 
ance and taste of the pudding. 

Boiled Eggs. —The proper way to cook eggs, especially for invalids or 
persons of weak digestion, is to keep them in water at 160 degrees to 170 
degrees F., rather than at 212 degrees, or boiling, since the white, or albumen, 
of this egg is rendered much less soluble by this high temperature. A simple 
way of cooking them properly is to let the water boil, then set it back off 
the stove and drop in the eggs, leaving them for four to six minutes. Serve 
with fruit, toast and chocolate and you will have a perfect breakfast. One 
can also put the eggs in a vessel and pour the hot water on . them. If left 
in long enough they will become hard-boiled, but tender. 

Tomato Salad (1). —Peel and slice fully ripe tomatoes; let them stand 
for five minutes to drain off the juice; then set them away on ice. When 
served, cut up the slices, and to each pint of tomatoes allow four tablespoon¬ 
fuls of lemon juice, the yolk of one egg, and enough salt, and mustard, to sea¬ 
son highly. Stir the dressing lightly through the tomatoes, and serve very 
cold. 

Tomato Salad (2).—Wash thoroughly and dry carefully a head of 
lettuce. Pour scalding water over tomatoes a moment, and skin them. Put 
a whole tomato on a leaf or two of lettuce and pour a little mayonnaise 
dressing on each. 

Macaroni with Cheese. —The genuine Italian macaroni is the best. 
Boil one-half pound (or half a package of the French macaroni) for from fif¬ 
teen to twenty minutes. Drain, and put half of it in a buttered baking dish, 
season with salt, grate cheese over it, add the other half of the 
macaroni, then mote cheese and some bits of butter on top. Pour over it 
enough drawn butter sauce to fill the dish—about one cup, and bake three- 
quarters of an hour, or until properly cooked. 

Rice Muffins (No. 1). —Take one cup cold boiled rice, two cups flour, 
two eggs, two cups milk, one tablespoonful butter and one teaspoonful salt. 
Beat very hard and bake quickly. 

Rice Muffins (No. 2).—One cup boiled rice, one cup sweet milk, two 
eggs, two tablespoonfuls melted butter, one teaspoonful sugar, two of baking 
powder, and enough flour to make a batter; beat hard and add the baking 
powder the last thing. Bake in muffin rings. 




602 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


THURSDAY. 

Dinner . 

Supper. 

Thick Tomato Soup 

Fruit Whole Wheat 

Boiled Potatoes Lima Beans 

Omelet 

Rice with Grated Cheese 

Green Sugar-Corn Cauliflower 

Honey Nuts 

Fruit 

Barley Muffins Lettuce Salad 


Tomato Soup. —Cover the bones, rim, etc., from a roast of beef or veal 
with cold water; add one onion, one carrot, celery, one-quarter of a bay leaf, 
small piece red pepper, and set on the back of the stove to simmer slowly five 
hours. Then add one can of tomatoes (or one quart fresh ones, peeled and 
cut up) and cook one and a half hours longer. Strain, thicken with flour, 
and serve with croutons made by spreading bread, cutting it into neat squares 
and browning in the oven. 

Boiled Corn. —Husk the corn, leaving the last shuck on. Put into cold 
water, bringing this to boil; serve as soon as the water begins to boil. 

Baked Corn. —Cut the grains of one dozen ears of corn down the middle 
and scrape. Add one cup boiling milk, salt to taste. Put in buttered baking 
dish, dot over small bits of butter and bake in moderate oven. 

Stewed Corn. —Cut the kernels through the center, and scrape contents 
from the ear. Put into cold milk, bringing this to a boil, when remove from 
range. Add butter and salt, and serve. 

Roast Corn. —Turn back husks and pick off the silk. Re-cover with the 
husks and roast in the hot ashes of a wood fire. 

Cauliflower. —Cauliflower should be placed head down in well salted 
water for a while to remove insects; trim off outside leaves and boil for thirty 
or forty minutes. Serve with butter or pour a drawn butter sauce over it. 

Cauliflower au Gratin. —If there is any cauliflower left over, it is 
very nice baked. Put the cauliflower is a baking dish, season, put on the top 
bread crumbs and grated cheese dotted with bits of butter, pour over all one 
cup drawn butter sauce, and bake fifteen minutes. If fresh cauliflower is 
used it should be baked longer. 

Barley Muffins. —One cup barley flour, two tablespoonfuls sugar, one 
lablespoonful melted butter, one egg, one cup milk, one teaspoonful baking 
powder, a little salt. Mix well, beat up and bake in greased muffin pans about 
twenty to thirty minutes. 

Boiled Rice. —Put one cup rice into three cups boiling water, and boil 
20 minutes; then set in a pot of boiling water, and keep the water boiling for 
four hours. Rice cooked in this way is especially easy of digestion. Serve 
with grated cheese. 





OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 603 


FRIDAY. 


Dinner. 

Baked Fish 

Baked Lentils Boiled Potatoes 
Creamed Cabbage 
Baked Onions Fruit 

Chocolate Pudding 


Supper. 

Fruit Whole Wheat 
Poached Eggs Creamed Potatoes 
Honey Hot Corn-Muffins 
Apple Salad 
Nuts and Dates 


Baked Bluefish, or Shad. —Cut gashes across the fish, in which put 
narrow strips of salt pork; dredge the fish with flour, season with salt and 
pepper; put in a baking pan, cover the bottom of the pan with hot water, 
and bake one hour; baste often and add a little water if the pan gets dry. 
Serve with Hollandaise sauce. 

Baked Onions. —Peel the onions and boil twenty minutes; drain, put in 
baking dish, cover with fresh boiling water and bake from one half to 
one hour. Take up and pour over them a sauce made of the water they 
were baked in, which should be about one cup; if there is not enough to fill 
a cup, add milk, let boil and add the yolk of one egg beaten and the hot milk 
poured on it, then return to the fire until it thickens. 

Creamed Cabbage. —Slice half a good-sized cabbage and put in cold 
water; as soon as it comes to a boil put back on the stove to simmer for thirty 
minutes, when it will be tender; drain and cover with a sauce made of one 
cup of milk, one tablespoonful of flour and one tablespoonful of butter and a 
little salt; let it get hot in this and serve. 

Chocolate Pudding. —One pint milk, one pint bread crumbs, yolks of 
three eggs, five tablespoonfuls grated chocolate. Scald the milk, add bread 
crumbs and chocolate. Take from fire and add one-half cup sugar, and the 
beaten yolks. Bake in pudding dish fifteen minutes. 

Poached Eggs. —Have a pan of salted water boiling. Drop in the eggs 
carefully and set where they will keep hot but not boil, until the white sets. 
Serve on toast. It is a good plan to set muffin rings in this pan and drop 
an egg in each. 

Apple Salad. —Chop one cup each tart apples (peeled and cored), and 
English walnuts or other nuts, one cup celery. Serve with dressing made as 
follows: Rub two slightly rounded tablespoonfuls of nut-butter smooth with 
two-thirds of a cupful of cold water and add half a teaspoonful of salt. Let 
all boil together for a moment, then remove from the fire, and add two table¬ 
spoonfuls of lemon juice. Set on ice to get very cold, then pour over the 
salad. Garnish with celery. 





MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


604 


SATURDAY. 

Dinner. 

Supper. 

Cauliflower Soup 

Fruit Apple Omelet 

Parsnips Green Peas 

Hot Graham Muffins 

Baked Sweet Potatoes 

Whole Wheat 

(same as Irish Potatoes) 

Fruit 

Pumpkin Pie with Cream Crust 

Macaroni a la Creme 

Honey Nuts and Dates 


Cauliflower Soup. —Melt in a saucepan a tablespoonful of butter with 
three tablespoonfuls of flour. When these are thoroughly cooked but not 
browned—three minutes’ stirring over the fire will suffice—add three pints of 
vegetable stock, and finally half a good-sized cauliflower which has been 
previously boiled. When the soup has cooked ten minutes strain it through‘a 
puree sieve, pressing through all the cauliflower. Return soup to fire and Lt 
simmer slowly for twenty minutes longer. Serve with bread croutons. 

Boiled Parsnips. —If parsnips are young they require only to be scraped 
before boiling; old ones must be pared thin and cut into quarters. Put them 
into a stewpan of boiling water. Boil until tender. Serve with melted butter 
sauce. 

Buttered Parsnips. —Boil tender and scrape; slice lengthwise. Put 
three tablespoonfuls butter in a saucepan, salt and a little chopped parsley. 
When heated put in the parsnips. Shake and turn until mixture boils, then 
lay the parsnips in order upon a dish, and pour the butter over them and 
serve. 

Cream Crust. —Mix and sift one and a half teacupfuls of white flour 
with one and a half teacupfuls of Graham or whole-wheat flour. Moisten 
with one scant teacupful sweet cream, making a stiff dough. Roll not quite 
so thin as for white crust. For a fruit pie, brush over the bottom crust with 
white of egg to keep the juice from soaking in. 

Apple Omelet. —Stew apples as for apple sauce. Beat well with one 
tablespoonful butter, sugar to sweeten and a little cinnamon. When perfectly 
cold add five eggs, beaten well. Bake until brown. Eat warm, for tea, with 
whole-wheat bread. Grated raw apples are preferable to stewed. 

Graham Muffins. —One quart Graham flour, two teaspoonfuls baking 
powder, two tablespoonfuls sugar, a little salt, one tablespoonful butter, egg 
and two cups milk. Bake in small pans at once in a good oven, fifteen minutes. 

Macaroni a la Creme. —Boil the macaroni twenty minutes in milk; add 
a little salt. Pour on it drawn butter sauce, and serve with grated cheese. 





CHAPTER XXIV 

HOME METHODS OF FOOD PRESERVATION. 


C ANNING is more generally used in this country for 
preserving fruit and vegetables than drying. While one 
may purchase a large variety of canned foods, it is always 
well to be a little suspicious of those put up in tin or those in 
which pleasing coloring matters have been used to add attract¬ 
iveness to the food in question. 

While undoubtedly the pure food law has done much 
towards breaking up the practice of some dealers in adulter¬ 
ating canned goods and using harmful preservatives in them, 
it must not be forgotten that this law applies only to food 
shipped from one state to another and not in any way to 
foods made for sale in the state in which they are prepared. 
Hence, unless you are protected by a rigorous pure food law 
in your own state, you are as much as ever at the mercy of 
the wretches who adulterate and poison food under the false 
pretense of preserving it. Therefore it is just as well to avoid 
canned foods of unknown origin. 

Dried foods, such as peas, beans and evaporated fruits, as 
a rule are better than similar foods preserved by canning, 
unless you are satisfied that these have been kept pure and 
clean during the canning process. At the same time there 
can be no question but that canned fruits and vegetables, if 
properly prepared, are a most useful addition to the everyday 
dietary. Those that are put up in glass are generally prefer¬ 
able to those put up in tin, though if, when the tin can is emptied 
its surface is smooth and bright, showing that no chemical 
nor acid has been eating away its substance, it is safe to assume 
that the contents are unharmed and harmless. 

Advice to Canners. —But by far the better plan, how¬ 
ever is for the provident housewife to do the canning of the 
fruits and vegetables needed for her own household herself. 

The process of canning is generally understood, but the 
government bulletins written by experts tell of improved 


606 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


methods and gives some excellent hints from which I extract 
the following:— 

“In canning fruits it is well to remember that the product 
is more satisfactory if heated gradually to the boiling point 
and then cooked the given time. 

“The selection of fruit is one of the first steps in obtaining 
successful results. The flavor of fruit is not developed until 
it is fully ripe, but the time at which the fruit is at its best for 
canning, jelly-making, etc., is just before it is perfectly 
ripe. In all soft fruits the fermentative stage follows closely 
upon the perfectly ripe stage; therefore it is better to use 
under-ripe rather than over-ripe fruit. This is especially im¬ 
portant in jelly-making for another reason also: In over-ripe 
fruit the pectin begins to lose its jelly-making quality. 

“All fruit should, if possible, be freshly picked for pre¬ 
serving, canning and jelly-making. No imperfect fruit should 
be canned or preserved. Gnarly fruit may be used for jellies 
and marmalades by cutting out defective portions. Bruised 
spots should be cut out of peaches and pears, etc. 

“When fruit is brought into the house put it where it 
will keep cool and crisp until you are ready to use it. 

“The preparation of fruit for the various processes of 
preserving is the second important step. Begin by having 
the kitchen swept and dusted thoroughly, so that there will not 
be a large number of mold spores floating about. Dust with 
a damp cloth. Have plenty of hot water and pans in which 
jars and utensils may be sterilized. Have at hand all neces¬ 
sary utensils, towels, sugar, etc. 

“If practicable, pare fruit with a silver knife, so as not 
to stain or darken the product. The quickest and easiest 
way to peel peaches is to drop them into boiling water for 
a few minutes. Have a deep kettle a little more than half 
full of boiling water; fill a wire basket with peaches; put a 
long handled spoon under the handle of the basket and 
lower into the boiling water. At the end of three minutes 
lift the basket out by slipping the spoon under the handle. 
Plunge the basket for a moment into a pan of cold water. 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


607 


Let the peaches drain a minute and then peel. Plums and 
tomatoes may be peeled in the same manner. 

“If peaches are to be canned in sirup, put them at once 
into the sterilized jars. They may be canned whole or in 
halves. If in halves, remove nearly all the stones or pits. 
For the sake of flavor, a few stones should be put in each jar. 

“When jelly is to be made from any of the large fruits, 
wash clean and remove stem and blossom end. Nearly all of 
the large fruits are better for having the skins left on. Apples 
and pears need not be cored, but there is so much gummy 
substance in the core of quinces that it is best not to use this 
portion in making fine jelly. 

“Canning fruits is from all points the most desirable method 
of preserving them for home use. It is the easiest and com¬ 
monly considered the most economical and the best, because 
the fruit is kept in a soft and juicy condition in which it is 
believed to be easily digested. The wise housekeeper will 
can her principal fruit supply, making only enough rich pre¬ 
serves to serve for variety and for special occasions. 

“In canning, any proportion of sugar may be used, or 
fruit may be canned without the addition of any sugar. How¬ 
ever, that which is designed to be served as a sauce should have 
the sugar cooked with it. Fruit intended for cooking pur¬ 
poses need not have the sugar added to it. 

“Juicy fruits, such as berries and cherries, require little or 
no water. Strawberries are better not to have water added to 
them. The only exception to this is when they are cooked in 
heavy sirup.” 

Canning Vegetables .—In the canning of vegetables also 
Mr. J. F. Breazeale, an expert of the Department of Agri¬ 
culture, makes some important suggestions and shows, what 
many housewives have not learned, that, when one knows how 
to go to work properly, it is just as easy to can vegetables as 
fruit. He says: 

“Bacteria thrive in products like milk and in meats and 
vegetables rich in protein, such as peas, beans, etc. They are 
so small that they can only be seen with a microscope, and they 




608 


MAC FAD DEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


reproduce themselves with amazing rapidity. One bacterium 
under favorable conditions will produce about twenty million 
in the course of twenty-four hours. Accordingly certain vege¬ 
tables spoil more rapidly than others, because they furnish a 
better medium for bacterial growth. 

“Certain species of bacteria will live and cause vegetables to 
decompose even when no air is present. Hence to guard 
against decay, the vegetable must first be thoroughly sterilized. 

“Now the reproduction of bacteria is brought about by one 
of two processes. The germ either divides itself into two parts, 
making two bacteria where one existed before, or else repro¬ 
duces itself by means of spores. These present the chief diffi¬ 
culty in canning vegetables. While the parent bacteria may 
be readily killed at the temperature of boiling water, the spores 
retain their vitality for a long time even at that temperature, 
and upon cooling will germinate, and the newly formed bac¬ 
teria will begin their destructive work. Therefore it is neces¬ 
sary, in order completely to sterilize a vegetable, to heat it to 
the boiling point of water and keep it at that temperature for 
about one hour, upon two or three successive days, or else 
keep it at the temperature of boiling water for a long period 
of time—about five hours. The process of boiling upon suc¬ 
cessive days is the one that is always employed in scientific 
work and is much to be preferred. The boiling on the first 



Type of jar used in can¬ 
ning. To open jar spring 
at side is first raised as 
shown. 



Another type of jar with 
metal top and fastener. 


Type of improved screw- 
top jar, with glass top and 
metal screw cover. 
























































































OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


609 


day kills all the molds and practically all the bacteria, but 
does not kill the spores or seeds. 

“As soon as the jar cools, these seeds germinate and a fresh 
crop of bacteria begin work upon the vegetables. The boiling 
point upon this second day kills this crop of bacteria before 
they have had time to develop spores. The boiling upon the 
third day is not always necessary, but is advisable in order to. 
be sure that the sterilization is complete. Among scientists this 
is called fractional sterilization, and this principle constitutes 
the whole secret of canning. If the housewife will only bear 
this in mind she will be able with a little ingenuity to can any 
meat, fruit or vegetable. 

“Never attempt to can any vegetable that has matured 
and commenced to harden or one that has begun to de¬ 
cay. As a rule, young vegetables are superior in flavor and 
texture to the more mature ones. This is especially true of 
string beans, okra and asparagus. Vegetables are better if 
gathered in the morning while the dew is still on them.” 

Dangers of Preserving Powders.— For purposes of 
sterilization some people use “preserving powders.” These 
powders should never be used. It may be true that some of 
them are not particularly harmful, but their use may be dan¬ 
gerous and had far better be avoided. The sure, safe and 



Spring-top canning Jar 
showing rubber ring and 
glass cover. 


Jar with springs re¬ 
leased ready for remov¬ 
ing cover. 



Jar at the conclusion 
of the canning, tightly 
sealed and ready for stor¬ 
ing. 
























































010 MACFADDEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


proper way to sterilize is by means of heat, and as this can 
be done very easily and cheaply, the use of all preservatives in 
canning should he rigorously excluded. In vegetables, as in 
fruits, glass jars should always be used, if possible, and the 
wider the top the better. 

The best utensil for canning is the steam-cooker, as here¬ 
with pictured. It is ideal for canning, holding a dozen or 
more quart jars. At the same time it is somewhat expensive 
and can be dispensed with. If one has a common ham- or 
clothes-boiler with a tight-fitting cover, it will answer every 
purpose if it is fitted with a false bottom made of wire netting. 
This netting is made of medium sized No. 16 galvanized wire, 
with one-half inch mesh. Narrow strips of wood can be put 
across the bottom of the boiler and the wire-netting false bot¬ 
tom allowed to rest upon these. 

As soon as the vegetables are prepared pack each jar full, 

add salt to taste, and 
then fill up the jar to 
the top with cold 
water. The rubber 
rings should always be 
placed on the top be¬ 
fore the jars are filled. 
Then place the cover 
on top loosely so 
that the steam may 
have perfect oppor¬ 
tunity of egress dur¬ 
ing the process of 
cooking. 

Now place the false 
bottom in the boiler 
and put in as many 
jars as the boiler will 
conveniently hold. Do 

Steam cooker with ja^s-^splendid device used in not try to crow( J them 































OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


611 


in. Leave space between them. Pour in about three inches 
of cold water or just enough to form steam and prevent the 
boiler from going dry during the cooking. It is not neces¬ 
sary to have the water 
up to the neck of the 
jars, as the steam will 
do the cooking. Put 
the cover on the boiler 
and set it on the stove. 

Bring the water to a 
boil and keep it boil¬ 
ing for one hour. At 
the end of that time 
remove the cover of 
the boiler and allow 
the steam to escape. 

Press down the spring at the side of the jar as shown in figure, 
or if screw-top jars are used, screw the top on. This will pre¬ 
vent any outside air from entering. The jars can now be re¬ 
moved and cooled or allowed to stand in the boiler till the next 
day. 

On the second day raise the spring at the side of the 
jar as shown in figure, or unscrew the top, if screw-top jars 
are used. This will relieve any pressure from steam that might 
accumulate inside the jar during the second cooking. Place the 
jars again in the boiler and boil for one hour. Clamp or screw 
on the top as on the preceding day and allow them to cool. 
Repeat this operation on the third day. In removing the jars 
from the boiler be careful not to expose them to a draft of cold 
air while they are hot, as a sudden change in temperature is 
likely to crack them. 

After the sterilization is complete the jars may be set aside 
for a day or two and then tested. This is done by releasing 
the spring at the side and picking up the jar by the top as 
shown in figure. (With screw top jars, no testing is possible.) 
If there has been the least bit of decomposition, or if steril¬ 
ization has not been complete, the top will come off. I his is be- 



Fig. 5.—Sterilizer, showing false bottom. 

Sterilizer consisting of ordinary wash 
boiler. In front is shown a false bottom made 
of wire netting. 































612 MACFADDENS ENCYCLOPEDIA 


cause the pressure on the top has been relieved by the gas 
formed by the bacteria. In this case, it is always best to empty 
the jar and fill with fresh vegetables. If canning fruits or ex¬ 
pensive vegetables, however, examine the contents of the jar 
and, if the decomposition has not gone far enough to injure 
the flavor, place it once more in the boiler and sterilize over 
again. If the top does not come off, you may feel sure that 
the vegetable is keeping. 

Dehydration of Fruits and Vegetables. —Dehydration, 
or, in simpler language, drying, is an older method of pre¬ 
serving perishable foods than canning. That this custom, well 
known to our grandparents, was allowed to go out of use, is 
to be explained by the comparative cheapness of canning both 
at home and in commercial canneries. The war made canning 
more expensive and also made it imperative to save all food, 
which brought about a revival of the older method of preserva¬ 
tion. Meanwhile the art of dehydration had been improved 
and the use of the method extended to a larger variety of 
foods, many of which are difficult to preserve by canning. 

The chief practical advantage of dehydration is that it is 
applicable to vegetables, the lack of which in the early winter 
and spring diet is a serious fault from the viewpoint of either 
nutrition or economy. Certain fruits, notably apples, peaches, 
apricots, prunes, raisins, figs and dates have always been 
staples in the dried or dehydrated form. But until recently 
dried vegetables were a curiosity in the market. With the 
stimulation of interest in this important subject, we may now 
hope to see dried fruits and vegetables of all kinds in the 
general markets of our cities. The rural communities could 
preserve an ample stock of fruits and vegetables for the season 
of scarcity. With the general adoption of this efficient system 
there should be no excuse for the diet of even the poorer people 
being deficient in these important food groups at any season 
of the year. 

With the first introduction of dehydrated vegetables it 
was natural that those firms which had developed expensive 
plants and equipments should represent the art of dehydration 





Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

A vine laden with luscious fruit. 


613 












OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


615 


to be expensive and difficult. While it is true that certain 
effects in color and flavor retention can be better secured 
with expensive equipment, there is no reason why practically 
all fresh fruits and vegetables cannot be dehydrated with simple 
apparatus available to every farmer and gardener. All that 
is necessary is to understand the general principles and to 
know the correct drying temperatures for the various foods. 

In order to remove the water from fresh fruits or vege¬ 
tables with the least possible change in the quality of the 
food, it is necessary that the drying be conducted speedily. 
This may be done by a suitable arrangement of the drying 
trays and by proper slicing and spreading of the material so 
that the air, which must be at a proper temperature, can cir¬ 
culate rapidly. 

This combination of conditions may be achieved in several 
different fashions, and the one to be chosen will depend upon 
the local conditions and the amount of material to be dried. 
In the southern and western parts of the United States it is 
feasible to dry most fruits and some vegetables in the open 
by the heat of the sun. In cooler and damper regions, or in 
the later part of the season artificial heat is required or one 
may experience considerable losses from spoilage due to rainy 
weather. 

Drying—Outdoors and Indoors. —For outdoor drying 
no special equipment is necessary, although there is more 
danger of spoilage by sudden showers. Greater cleanliness 
from dust and insects may be secured by drying under glass. 
Hot-bed sash may be advantageously used for this purpose. 
The sash need only to be set in frames that are provided at 
top and bottom with openings for air circulation. These may 
be screened to prevent the access of insects. 

Where but a small quantity of material is to be dehydrated 
the drying may be done indoors by the heat of the stove. Open 
baking pans may be used, but a better plan is to make simple 
trays of heavy galvanized screen so that the air can pass through 
a number of them placed one above the other. Such a series 
of trays may be hung in the open above the stove. If a more 

Vol. 1—38 




616 MACFAD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


convenient dryer is required, similar trays may be fitted into 
a sheet metal cabinet to be placed on top of the stove. The 
natural rising of the heated air will cause ample circulation 
through the cabinet if it has openings at top and bottom. 

Home dryers of this description are in the market, but they 
can easily be made by any man or boy handy with tools. The 
entire cabinet need not be made of metal, but only the bottom 
parts that come near the stove. The tray frames and tray 
slides may be safely made of wood as the material in drying 
is to be kept at temperature considerably below the boiling 
point of water. 

Where electric current and an electric fan are available 
dehydration may be conducted at room temperatures by means 
of the more rapid circulation of air. For work on a small 
scale one needs only to make a series of trays with closed sides 
and open ends and set them one on top of the other and blow 
the air through them with a fan. The most economical results 
are to be achieved by the combination of the fan and the arti¬ 
ficial heat. Where the work warrants it a larger cabinet may 
be made with a fan in it so located as to circulate the air rapidly 
through the trays. In this case the cabinet may be so con¬ 
structed that the same current of air returns to the fan. If 
comparatively small openings are allowed for the gradual ex¬ 
change of air, fan drying is very rapid and results may be 
achieved with such a home-made apparatus that will quite 
equal the best product of the large plant. 

Food material to be dehydrated should be selected, washed, 
inferior specimens discarded, and decayed portions removed, 
all with the same care that would be used if the food was being 
prepared immediately for the table. Many farm raised people 
who have relished home dried apples find it impossible to eat 
the commercial product because of the unpleasant evidence 
that wormy or rotton fruit was used. The dried food should 
in every case be so prepared that it will he ready for cooking 
without further examination. 

The material to be dried must be cut into thin strips or 
slices. There is no advantage in making the slices too thin as 




OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 617 


they will mat together in the trays and dry unevenly. It is 
important that the slices be of uniform thickness, otherwise the 
drying will be uneven and the thin slices will be overdried before 
the thick ones are dry enough. As a general rule slices about 
one-quarter of an inch thick will give good results. 

Fruits and vegetables to be dehydrated should be peeled 
only when those for whom they are intended insist on having 
the product without the peeling. Eating or refusing to eat the 
skins of most fruit and vegetables is a matter of habit. Many 
people who have been trained to eat all fruits and vegetables 
only after the peel has been removed object strenuously to 
the thought of eating fruit and vegetable skins, but if once 
induced to change their habit they wonder why they ever went 
to the trouble and waste of paring away what is often the best 
part of the food. If paring is insisted upon a method should 
be used, wherever possible, that will remove the thin outside 
peel only. In case of potatoes, tomatoes and beets this may 
be accomplished by dipping them in boiling water, the time 
depending on the particular product. Apples and peaches 
must be pared if one objects to the peel in the product. Me¬ 
chanical apple parers are an improvement over the hand 
method, but there is no machine that will pare peaches and in 
commercial drying the skins are sometimes removed by a hot 
lye bath, which I certainly do not recommend. Potatoes if not 
pared should be scrubbed with a stiff brush which removes both 
the dirt and some of the outer layers of the skins. 

As soon as fruit or vegetables are pared or sliced deterioriza- 
tion begins, due to contact with the air and exposure to the 
attack of germs of* decay. The chemical changes so caused 
will injure both the appearance and the flavor of the fruit. It 
is therefore essential that drying be begun as quickly as pos¬ 
sible and completed at a rapid rate. There are certain methods 
in use to check this deterioration while the drying is in progress. 
One such method used commercially is to expose the freshly 
cut product to sulphur fumes which condense in the moisture 
as sulphurous acid and act as a poisonous sterilizing agent. 
A finer looking product can be secured in this manner, but only 




618 


MACF AD DEN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


at the expense of wholesomeness. A more defensible plan of 
sterilizing the fruit or vegetables is to dip them for a few 
minutes into boiling water. This is not so objectionable as the 
sulphuring, but it results in the loss of valuable mineral salts 
by solution in the water. It also makes drying more difficult 
because of the added water that must then be evaporated. 

Sterilizing with Live Steam. —The best plan yet dis¬ 
covered for such sterilizing or blanching of material to be 
dehydrated is treatment with live steam. Where the quantity 
of food to be prepared is sufficient to warrant it a steaming 
cabinet may be constructed for the purpose. For smaller scale 
use a wire basket may be made to fit into a wash boiler. A 
little water in the bottom of the boiler will furnish the steam 
and strips may be placed to keep the basket out of the water. 
Have the material arranged loosely in the basket and expose 
to the steam for two or three minutes only. The steaming 
should be done as quickly as practical after slicing and the 
material should then be immediately placed in the dryer. Such 
treatment will check the changes that cause the darkening of 
the product in drying and may be used for whatever material 
is found to require it to prevent an inferior appearing product. 

Drying must not be at too high a temperature because not 
only will the material be cooked, which is undesirable, but the 
outside will dry too quickly and the hard crust so formed will 
check the drying of the inner portion. Also in some cases too 
great heat will cause the juices to run out and be lost. The 
following table gives the correct temperatures for dehydrating 
various products, and also the yield of dried product per hun¬ 
dred pounds of fresh material. 



Initial 

Finishing 



temperature. 

temperature. 

Yield. 


Degrees 

Degrees 


Fahrenheit. 

Fahrenheit. 


Apples . 

. 130 

175 

13 

Apricots . 

. 130 

160 

17 

Blackberries . 

. 130 

145 

18 

Beans (string) . 

. 130 

145 

12 

Beets . 

. 120 

145 

16 

Cabbage . 

. 120 

130 

9 

Carrots . 

. 120 

145 

11 

Cauliflower . 

.:.... 120 

130 

13 

Celery . 

. 135 

145 

8 

Cherries . 

. 120 

150 

20 


t 














OF PHYSICAL CULTURE 


619 



Initial 

Finishing 

* 


temperature. 

temperature. 



Degrees 

Degrees 

Yield. 


Fahrenheit. 

Fahrenheit. > 


Corn (sweet) . 

. 180 

140 

28 

Figs . 

. 120 

140 

22 

Okra . 


135 

10 

Onions . 

. 140 

140 

10 

Parsnips . 

. 120 

145 

20 

Peaches . 

. 130 

160 

15 

Pears . 

. 130 

175 

20 

Peas . 

. 130 

145 

24 

Potatoes (white) . 

. 125 

150 

24 

Potatoes (sweet) . 

. 150 

160 

32 

Prunes . 

. 130 

175 

30 

Pumpkin . 

. 135 

160 

7 

Raspberries . 

. 130 

145 

20 

Spinach . 

. 130 

130 

9 

Squash . 

. 135 

160 

8 

Tomatoes . 

. 120 

140 

8 

Turnips . 

. 140 

165 

9 


None of these foods should be completely dried. The pur¬ 
pose is to reduce to about the state of dryness of cereals, that 
is, to about ten per cent of water. Sweet fruits do not need 
to be as dry as that, as the sugar acts as a preservative. In 
drying vegetables the process should be continued until no 
moisture can be squeezed from the dampest pieces with the 
fingers. 

After the material is removed from the dryer it should be 
conditioned by being placed in an open bin and stirred occa¬ 
sionally. This will cause the moisture in the various portions 
to be evened up. The product should then be stored in paper 
or muslin bags or in paper or wooden boxes and should not be 
sealed in air-tight containers, which would cause it to “sweat” 
and spoil. The object in storing it is simply to keep out insects 
and dust. Material that has been dried in the open may be 
infected with insect eggs and therefore should be heated in 
the oven to a temperature of 180 degrees to kill all insect life 
before storing. 

In preparing dehydrated foods for the table they may be 
either soaked in cold water in the case of foods that would be 
eaten raw in the fresh state, or they may be steamed, stewed 
or boiled. Proper methods of dehydrating cause little change 
in food value, and is on the whole less destructive to the nutri¬ 
tive properties than canning or other methods of preservation. 
Almost all dehydrated products undergo some alteration in 





















620 


MAC FA DDE N\S ENCYCLOPEDIA 


flavor, and may not at first appeal to the taste, but this slight 
distinction in taste is not a sign of inferiority and many people, 
after getting accustomed to the dehydrated product, like it as 
well, at least by way of variety, as they do the fresh article. 


















